Managing Twotwentytwo’s Social Media Launch.
Twotwentytwo is a creative code studio based in Sweden, and I have worked with them from day one, helping the founders understand and form the personality of the brand and even providing the name of the company. In February 2018, they were ready to launch the Twotwentytwo website and social media — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Medium — and I was responsible for putting a team together to help launch their new brand, share their portfolio of work, and build the brand values across social media.
I brought in Petya Panowa to oversee the social media accounts in the position of Social Media Manager. In her early twenties and a student of advertising, her on-the-pulse input would make a perfect companion to my knowledge of the Twotwentytwo brand, creative and advertising industry experience, and writing ability. In the early days, Instagram and Twitter were the channels designated to Petya. LinkedIn and Medium were mine. And Facebook fell somewhere in between.
Together, Petya and I decided that Twitter would be the brand’s most prolific channel at four posts per day. This is because of the nature of the advertising and creative industries. Twitter has been a popular meeting place for creatives within the advertising industry for years; it’s where creatives are hired for work, and where the industry awards are more likely to be seen and shared. When the Twotwentytwo site won the FWA, Awwwards, and a number of other Site of the Day awards, we shared the news over every social media platform, and Twitter was by a long way the most responsive. There is a real community there for our industry, and this is an important part of the role of managing a company’s social accounts — you must understand how the followers of the company like to learn about updates and news.
Petya is a pro with Instagram, so this was our next most important channel, keeping the daily stories topped up and posting at least twice a day. It took a couple of weeks to establish the visual style, but we did find it, and Twotwentytwo now has an unmistakable and recognisable visual aesthetic. The content varies from code, creativity, coffee, worklife, our pets, our cities, and our time away from work, but it always represents the people at Twotwentytwo, and that’s what building a brand is all about.
LinkedIn and Facebook were viewed as secondary accounts. We posted once a day over Facebook, reduced to twice a week after a couple of months, and just once a week over LinkedIn. We wanted to stay active, but saw the platforms as passive ones. Over Twitter and Instagram, we wanted to chase new followers and build our brand, but Facebook and LinkedIn weren’t given the same responsibility. The quality of the posts were as high as possible, but we just posted less often and expected less from our followers there.
Medium was an exciting platform for us. I composed longer articles — between 500 and 100 words — about Twotwentytwo, the individuals at the company, and the nature of creativity and code. It was important for the new brand to stretch its legs and speak more freely about certain topics. The other channels can be a little reductive in their brevity, and they rely on a significant amount of time passing before a brand becomes fully-formed, real, and recognizable. But with Medium, I could attack a subject in detail and at length, and I feel that these articles are a great asset to the new brand. Followers and potential clients can read the articles at their pleasure and fully understand the brand values and personality of Twotwentytwo.
Petya and I were successful in building our little communities over every social media channel, and Petya was particularly good at monitoring every comment and interacting with our followers. I believe we succeeded in creating a sense of authenticity and honesty across social media. It’s clear we’re not pretending to be anything other than ourselves, and people have noticeable warmed to that.
Launching the new Twotwentytwo brand was a success, and after summer we will continue working with Twotwentytwo to design and implement the next phase of its social media journey, which will continue our work in building the brand and include a new and heavy focus on reaching more people and gaining even more followers.
