Company officials at Twitter surely know something about brand loyalty. Consider that in 2014 total engagement for brands soared 105% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, according to Simply Measured’s Q4 2014 Twitter Benchmark Report.
The report analyzed top brands and their activity, audience growth, and engagement rate on Twitter. This massive uptick in customer engagement and brand loyalty signals increased sophistication from brands when targeting customers, as well as a general increased comfort level for Twitter users interacting with branded content.
What’s more, the brands measured also grew their audience sizes by 37.5% year-over-year and increased posting by 11% in the same time period in 2013.
“As brands continue to integrate social media strategy into their overall marketing plan, it’s a constant struggle to decide where to allocate resources,” Jeff Bullas, author and digital brand strategist, said in a release. “With all the channels and different market opportunities, it’s encouraging to see the original social networks still growing and providing brand engagement at such a high rate. The increased engagement rate shows that more users are not only jumping to Twitter, but also becoming more 
comfortable engaging with brands on the network.”
Here are some other key findings from the report:
Brands fully adopt Twitter as a social channel driving brand engagement. 95%of the Interbrand 100 brands studied in Q4 2014 tweet at least once a day, representing an increase since 2013.
Customer service on Twitter remains a growing focus for brands. Overall brand posts, @replies, and retweets increased 25% in Q4 2014 year-over-year. The steep rise of @replies and retweets by brands likely represents the rise of companies addressing customer service concerns on Twitter. The ability to have a real time, two-way conversation with consumers to resolve issues gives brands a way to receive feedback quickly and effectively.
Content is crucial to social success. The number of retweets of brand tweets has increased 65% since Q4 2013. Brands are not only becoming more sophisticated at marketing to the fast-paced world of Twitter, but they're also creating higher quality content, leading to consumer willingness to share the posts on their own feed.
Consumers are engaging more frequently. While overall engagement for brands has more than doubled, per-post engagement is also up signaling more frequent interactions between brands and consumers on Twitter. Per-post engagement is up from 91 average interactions per post in Q4 2013 to 168 average interactions per post in Q4 2014.
“There is an increasingly scientific approach to the art of social marketing,” Adam Schoenfeld, Simply Measured CEO and co-founder, explained. “The most effective brands have proven success by the continued rise of engagement with their audience. The key to developing a winning social media strategy lies in the data. Brands that use social data to set their strategy, plan their campaigns, and later measure and optimize their tactics, continue to see real value in social marketing. At the end of the day, social media provides an exciting opportunity for brands to engage customers in new ways, but only the brands with a practical, data-driven approach are able to consistently rise above the noise as the landscape changes.”