05 Dec Which Social Network Has the Best Twitter Account?

Posted at 15:25h in Twitter Marketing by

As much attention as brands get for clever tweets, I’m always interested in how the social networks themselves use Twitter. Ever wondered which social network has the best Twitter account? No? Well, I put together a list anyway.

The “Science” Behind the Rankings

I put the word science in quotes because there is none. I chose to forego fancy analytics in favor of the good ‘ole fashioned eyeball test. Call me a luddite all you want, but I think you’ll appreciate my rankings by the end of this blog post. And if not… sound off in the comments. Let the controversy begin!

12. Meetup

It has less than 20,000 followers. It isn’t even verified by Twitter. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing from the Meetup Twitter handle, but I was even more underwhelmed than I thought I would be.

The Meetup handle really just serves as a customer service platform. Almost every single tweet is an @reply to another Twitter user. I had to go back all the way to July of last year to find an original tweet with a decent level of engagement.

This is perfect! Why doesn’t Meetup tweet like this more often? Don’t get me wrong. The customer service part is great. I wish more brands would reply as much as this one does. But that doesn’t mean you can’t tweet your own content.

11. MySpace

MySpace is an interesting case. The Twitter account posts interesting, varied content and it has fairly high number of followers, but engagement is painfully low. There might be a well-performing tweet here and there but tweets usually look like this:

Why is the engagement so low? It could be because the handle tweets a bit too often. It could be because the handle isn’t taking advantage of Twitter’s new visual style. Or it could be because it’s MySpace.

10. Snapchat

Snapchat really impressed me. With only half the number of followers as MySpace, Snapchat gets more than twice the engagement. It also does an excellent job of retweeting people who mention Snapchat. That might not seem like a big deal, but a simple retweet from a big brand can make a fan’s day.

Snapchat on Twitter

If Snapchat continues to stay relevant and it maintains this excellent Twitter strategy, I would expect the Twitter handle to grow considerably over the next year.

9. deviantART

deviantART is one of those sneaky good social networks that’s rarely top of mind but has a really strong user base and the artwork on there frequently becomes viral. The Twitter handle does an excellent job of showcasing the artists that make up its network.

It was really difficult to put deviantART ahead of Snapchat. They’re about even in terms of engagement, but considering that deviantART has twice as many followers, it has a slight edge.

8. LinkedIn

For only having about half a million followers, LinkedIn does a really nice job with its Twitter account. It tweets very interesting articles with information to help people improve themselves, their résumés, and find new jobs and opportunities.

7. Tumblr

One thing I really like about Tumblr that is lacking from the other social networks is that this Twitter account has a bit of an edge to it. Tumblr is not afraid to post content such as artistic nudity and profanity. And the followers love it.

6. Pinterest

The Pinterest Twitter handle is probably exactly how you would imagine it to be: recipes, crafts, cute animals, fashion, users and celebrities talking about Pinterest, etc. And that’s exactly what it should be.

The handle follows all of the Twitter best practices. Pinterest tweets interesting content, retweets its fans, and doesn’t overtweet. Combine that with over 1.5 million followers and you’ve got an exceptional Twitter account.

5. Facebook

As I wrote in one of my previous blog posts, Facebook is very adept at Twitter. It has a huge number of followers (almost as many as Twitter) and produces interesting, shareable content.

Facebook could easily move up a few spaces; however, the handle hasn’t tweeted once in more than a month and a half. I can’t in good conscience put a handle that doesn’t follow best practices at the top of this list.

4. Instagram

Of all the social networks on Twitter, Instagram has the second most followers and it would have the potential to be #1 if it wasn’t for one thing… Facebook. Ever since Facebook acquired Instagram, Twitter removed picture integration. So now you have to click off site to view Instagram photos which has to have a huge effect on engagement. Now Instagram is more likely to send you to a blog post than a picture.

I can’t see this being fixed anytime soon unless Instagram finds some clever loop hoole in the new Twitter cards.

3. Twitter

What?! Twitter at number three?! How is that possible?! This is no knock against Twitter. It clearly knows what it’s doing with its own social network (unlike Facebook #burn). The @Twitter handle follows all the best practices.

Spoiler Alert: Vine just murders Twitter when it comes to engagement. And YouTube… well YouTube is just on a whole other level.

2. Vine

It appears the student has become the master. Despite owning the burgeoning network, Twitter isn’t very good at using Vine. Vine, on the other hand, is very good at Twitter. It’s a pretty simple formula. In addition to occasionally sharing news about the network (e.g., new updates), the handle shares the most popular Vine videos. It only has about a quarter of the number of followers as Twitter, but tweets perform so much better.

The beauty of it is that the simple act of sharing some of the best Vines promotes the network and gets people interested in joining the social network.

1. YouTube

With over 35 million, YouTube has the most followers of any social network on Twitter, by far. YouTube employs a similar strategy to Vine, posting popular videos. The engagement isn’t quite as high as Vine, but the YouTube handle can tweet eight times a day and still receive a high number of retweets and favorites. If you can do that and not irritate people, you know people are interested in your content.

The tweets are also well written. You can tell whoever is in charge of the Twitter account understands the importance of concision and has an excellent grasp of Internet culture.

ERROR: Social Network Not Found

Just in case you were wondering, or thought I just completely missed it, Google+ does not have an official Twitter account.

Well, there you have it, my extremely unscientific ranking of the best social network Twitter account. I hope it entertained or possibly enraged you. At the very least, I hope you found it interesting.

What is your favorite Twitter account? Let me know in the comments.



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