National tourism agency VisitBritain has soared into the top 30 most popular brands on Twitter.
Its main Twitter feed @VisitBritain is at number 16 in the latest league table of companies operating on the hugely popular social media network.
VisitBritain is ahead of major commercial firms Virgin Media, LoveFilm, Dell and TopMan.
The league table is compiled by branded content agency Sutro Digital. The rankings are determined by the number of people who have signed up as ‘’followers’’ receiving all the ‘’tweets.’’
VisitBritain had amassed 15,101 dedicated followers on the day the list was compiled, XX October. It is the only public sector body to feature in the table published on http://www.sutrodigital.com/487/twitter/top-30-uk-handle-brands-on-twitter-by-number-of-followers.html. (New version is due to appear online at 2pm today 29 October).
The high position achieved by VisitBritain comes after the organisation committed itself to developing the world’s best social media strategy by a national tourism agency. VisitBritain has developed a range of social media platforms including LoveUK on Facebook and @VisitBritainBiz its corporate news feed on Twitter.
Our main consumer platforms, www.visitbritain.com, voted the world’s best national tourism organisation website, is also available in 21 languages around the world.
VisitBritain’s Head of Digital Justin Reid said: ‘’ Twitter is the best way to promote the UK in 140 characters. Our main Twitter account @VisitBritain has continually outperformed expectations since launch. In September 2010 alone it reached more than 720,000 people. It is an invaluable way for us to keep in touch with our customers, track what they are thinking, inform them about new events and launches and have fun while inspiring the world to explore Britain.’’
Sandie Dawe, VisitBritain’s Chief Executive said: ‘’This is great news because it shows that our strategy of harnessing new technology to boost the prominence of Britain as a tourism destination is paying off. The fact that @VisitBritain is up there punching its weight above the likes of LastMinute.com, Asda and Harvey Nicholls is a testament to just how powerful the Britain brand is – and the potential we have for creating a sustained increase in tourism to the UK around the 2012 Olympics.’’
