Character Count: Meet Bianca Posterli, Twitter's Head of Social Marketing and Campaigns

Twitter is filled with passionate people. The conversation changes with every event and hour ticking by. It's fascinating to watch one's timeline roll and roll, but sometimes it can feel like a stream moving too quickly to jump into. 

This feeling of intimidation is especially common with businesses who are jumping into Twitter for the first time or maybe have never been able to make their Twitter account really work for their business. Companies don't want to say the wrong thing and offend customers or muddle their brand.

To switch this confusion with confidence, I brought in Bianca Posterli, the Head of Social Marketing and Campaigns at Twitter. It'd be difficult to find someone more plugged into Twitter than Bianca. If a brand made a big splash or launch on Twitter — Bianca saw it. So I knew she'd be the perfect person to demystify the steps a business takes between starting on Twitter and cruising with an effective and appropriate Twitter voice.

We talk about the age of sassy brands and the positive or negative impact that irreverence can have on your brand. Bianca explains how "getting ratio'd" or having your Tweets "flop" can be good and signs of healthy growth for a brand. 

More on brand sass:

Every day I see brands Tweeting messages that would have been inappropriate just two years ago. But the average person on Twitter's fluency in brands and openness to corporate irreverence has raised. So many of the companies on Twitter feel that they have to keep one-upping themselves and their peers with sassier Tweets.

These sassy brands are often the most celebrated and talked about, but they don't make up the largest portion of companies on Twitter. Most companies can't reasonably hop on every meme and still maintain their brand voice. So they get intimidated and think Twitter isn't for their company.

Instead, think of Twitter as the place for the most human and conversational version of your brand. That conversation doesn't have to be bold — it just has to sound like a real person.

More on "getting ratio'd":

It's extremely useful to look at your followers and your Tweet engagement analytics to learn what your audience wants to see. But no amount of research and planning can negate the fact that your first Tweets in a new brand voice will be risky. This is exciting because the Tweet features of likes, replies, and Retweets give you immediate feedback about how well your Tweet was received.

Bianca talks about holding her breath after posting a Tweet and our Social Media Marketing Coordinator Lindsay Crider said the same thing in her interview. A little fear is natural — but it could also be the sign that you're taking your brand to the perfect place.

Bianca encourages us to re-think Tweets that "flop" as a learning experience. When a Tweet underperforms, you now know what your audience doesn't like or didn't expect. And you have to learn these content boundaries in order to fully thrive and focus on the content your audience will love.

Take a listen to Bianca's episode now. She's also joining us for a quick snippet at the end of our next, full-length episode with Wizards of the Coast: the company behind Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons.