FIGARODIGITAL.CO.UK
s the notion that a brand’s content is as important as its product gains momentum, marketers have been keen to espouse the values of storytelling. But what, you may
reasonably ask, does that actually entail in the accelerated world of social media marketing? One answer is to be found,
appropriately enough, on a London bookshop’s Twitter feed. Launched in August 2011 and currently racking up 68,000 followers, @WstonesOxfordSt is the brainchild of originator and sole operator Jonathan O’Brien. He was working as a bookseller on the shop floor when he had the idea for an account based on his mysterious character the Book Whisperer. The result is one of the most brilliantly engaging corporate accounts out there. Sage, surreal, prone to delirious flights of fancy and very funny, it’s helped rewrite what high street brands can achieve on Twitter. So where did it come from, how has it developed and what can others learn from it?
140 CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A STORY “It started with me writing about the store,” says O’Brien, who also works as Social Media Co-ordinator at BBC Two but continues to maintain the Waterstones account. “One day I came up with the idea that one of the books had gone mad in Hyde Park and this character, the Book Whisperer, had to go and calm it down. Over time the account’s grown into this slightly bizarre, separate world. The inspiration comes from all
How do you create a Twitter account that reflects your brand, generates deep engagement and establishes a unique tone of voice? Jonathan O’Brien, the man behind @WstonesOxfordSt, talks to Figaro Digital about writing, social media and his mysterious character the Book Whisperer
sorts of things I’ve read and loved. I’ve always liked that slightly strange element to writing. This is a bookshop’s account, so it wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t telling stories.” Key to the account’s success has been O’Brien’s artful tone of voice which enables Tweets to flit between comedy, fantasy, lyrical melancholy and topical comment. Over time the account has incorporated video and images including, memorably, the quest for some lost punctuation when in 2012 Waterstones (née Waterstone’s) dropped its apostrophe. O’Brien has also found neat ways to create longer narrative arcs on Twitter using tools such as Storify, while ensuring individual posts remain eminently Retweetable. (Among the most shared has been this delightfully sedate drinking game: ‘Settle down with a book and a nice glass of wine. Every time you feel a bit thirsty, take a sip.’) O’Brien says his strategy is grounded in responding to events in ways nobody else does. It was, nevertheless, a bold move on Waterstones’ part to grant him the autonomy and licence to do what he wanted with the
account. “At Waterstones each
store has its own Twitter feed, which is an unusual idea,” he says. “But it’s obviously been enormously beneficial. There might have been some initial hesitation at head office but after a while, when it became clear that it was working and growing very quickly, the decision was made to let me get on with it. It’s been amazing to have that level of trust, but it’s absolutely paid off.”
ARTICLE JON FORTGANG
The Big Book of Social Media Rules
The Big Book of Social Media Rules
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