
For Nissan, social media followers aren’t the be-all and end-all. It’s more important to get the right ones.
The brand has run promoted trends and tweets for many of its car models. But it recently launched a Twitter promoted accounts campaign to grow the follower base for its electric car, the Leaf. The promoted account began to run on National Plug-In Day, Sept. 23. The campaign has run for 17 days, adding a little more than 1,000 followers to bring the Leaf to 28,000.
At first glance, this isn’t much of a bump. It works out to 76 new followers per day. In all, its bumped up its follower count by just 3 percent.
But for Nissan, that’s a bonus. That’s because it doesn’t want just any followers, but those actually interested in the brand. For that reason, Nissan used Twitter’s new interest category targeting system, showing the promoted account @NissanLeaf to users who have already shown an interest in hybrid or electric vehicles and green business services.
“We’re more focused on gaining the right followers than just gaining the most followers,” said Erich Marx, social media chief at Nissan.
More in Marketing

Consumer sentiment heading into the holidays is low, but that could mislead marketers
Consumer sentiment’s low going into the holiday season, but marketers shouldn’t take it as a sign to retreat from the fray.

When CMOs pay for agents not agencies: S4 Capital’s AI gambit
S4 Capital execs say the quiet part out loud: AI is eating the ad industry.

Ferrero’s Danielle Sporkin breaks down the reality behind retail media’s full-funnel promise
The brand exec shared how Ferrero is rethinking retail media as a full-funnel tool — but challenges remain — at the Retail Media Advertising Strategies event in New York City.