U.S. Chamber of Commerce @uschamber

U.S. Chamber of Commerce uses Twitter to reach an influential audience

The Challenge

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than three million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations. The Chamber fights for free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion and governments around the world.

The Chamber often invests heavily in television, radio, online and print advertisements to relay its position on national issues to the public. With the increasing success of social media’s role in galvanizing the public, the organization wanted to add more dynamic mediums to communicate policy issues to influencers.

The Solution

“Twitter has a very active user base that is interested in learning more about and influencing national and local policy issues,” says Tom Collamore, Senior Vice President for Communications at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “This platform offers us access to journalists, traditional news media, policy experts and government leaders as well as the general public.” In fact, a 2012 study published by the Pew Research Center showed that Twitter users are 20% more likely to have attended a political meeting or rally and 50% more likely to influence someone’s vote than the general population.

Local and federal policy makers recognize that this active and influential audience uses Twitter as a forum to participate in the political process. All of the 2012 presidential candidates and over 80% of Congress use Twitter to communicate with their constituents. State officials Tweet too — voters can find more than 80% of their governors on Twitter.

To reach influential and interested supporters on Twitter, the U.S. Chamber (@uschamber) began building its follower base by using Promoted Accounts. It targeted users who were interested in issues such as jobs, health care and the economy. The organization also used Promoted Tweets to engage with its followers on policy issues. In one Promoted Tweet, the U.S. Chamber used the hashtag #jobs and asked its constituency to sign a petition to support measures for job growth. Another Promoted Tweet used the same hashtag with a link that directed users to the Chamber’s Six-Point plan for jobs creation.

The Results

During the Promoted Accounts campaign, the U.S. Chamber gained nearly 16 times the amount of followers per day compared to before the campaign. At an organic rate it would have taken @uschamber about four years to gain the same number of followers that it acquired in only three months with Promoted Accounts.

Twitter users were very interested in hearing what @uschamber had to say, with more than double the follow rate than the average for other Promoted Accounts. The followers from the campaign fit directly into the organization’s influential target audience — most of them also followed members of Congress and national campaign committees.

Twitter users were also highly engaged with the Promoted Tweets — the U.S. Chamber received over eight times the average reply rate for its Tweet that advocated job growth. Additionally, users were active in spreading the messages in the Promoted Tweets — the overall Retweet rate for all of its campaigns was over 50% higher than the average rate for Promoted Tweets across Twitter. “We wanted to reach our members, policy makers and the media alike to help us broadcast our message,” says Collamore. “Many of these issues are time sensitive for the American public, and our campaign helped us to quickly and effectively reach an audience who could help inform change.”

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