For brands that join the conversation, the pros outweigh the cons

Conversations are powerful. They lead to incredible innovation, problem-solving and creativity, and add to the richness of our lives; they can challenge misunderstandings and deceit. Ultimately, conversations can be the antidote to problems when people truly seek to listen, learn and understand.

Great things happen when people connect and share ideas. By removing barriers, whether physical or linguistic, technology enables conversations to happen in public, at scale, amplifying both the benefits and the challenges.

Despite those challenges, public conversation is worth serving and protecting because of the immense opportunities it can bring. This is even truer when we consider the same technology being used to facilitate discourse may be able to solve its challenges.

For businesses, the benefits of conversation are very real. Research has shown that it boosts the bottom line—based on a meta-analysis, at the upper limit, one of the 25 companies in the study saw a more than 10% increase in brand conversation lead to a 3% lift in sales.

On top of this, people want to talk to brands on social media. On Twitter, replies to brands increased 44% between 2019 and 2020.

Because the stakes are so high, brands need to understand how and when people want them to show up. According to Sparkler research commissioned by Twitter, people want brands to be authentic and engaging; have a unique and distinct POV; evolve their voice with the times; and connect on a multitude of topics.

Of course, doing these things is easier said than done, and jumping into the discourse—with both fans and detractors—brings its own set of risks for brands. What if someone replies with negative feedback? What if you do the homework and still say the wrong thing?

The good news is that analyses have shown the good and neutral often far outweigh the negative. Brandwatch sentiment analysis shows less than 0.21% of the brand conversation on Twitter is made up of negative replies, and a study of replies to brand tweets found that positive emojis far outweighed negative ones—for every 10 heart emojis, brands will only receive one eyeroll.

We also see brands that successfully execute the four recommendations in the Sparkler study build meaningful communities—not just customer loyalty but customer love. This connection and affinity, created through conversation, ultimately provides brands with resilience against reputational damage if and when crises arise—61% of people surveyed said brands should acknowledge moments of crisis in their advertising and communications as they are occurring.

With all of the brand opportunities created by engaging in real time, meaningful conversations, it is critical marketers lead the way and invest in the work to connect authentically and distinctly. The pros far outweigh the cons.

Caitlin Rush is global head of brand safety strategy at Twitter.