These Are the Secrets to a Successful Twitter Campaign And check out the brands that scored big this year.

So much of developing a social media presence is all about forming a connection with your customers. But how can you be sure that as your brand grows that you are really making an impact?

A great way to generate ideas as you head into 2018 is to look at the campaigns that gained the most traction this year. According to Twitter, these were the brands that truly had their finger on the pulse:

1. Best discovery moment: KFC's 11 herbs n spices
2. Best brand voice: #NuggsForCarter (Wendy's)
3. Best digital to physical activation: Beauty and the Beast (Disney)
4. Best C-suite strategy: Elon Musk (Tesla) and John Legere (T-Mobile)
5. Best banter: Verizon / T-Mobile ("Safe Word")
6. Best use of livestreaming: #Breaking2 (Nike)
7. Best use of social creators: #FriendsAgain (Bank of America)
8. Best purpose driven campaign: I'm with the Banned (Spotify) and #WeAccept (airbnb)
9. Best use of DM: #TwitterHaloWars (Microsoft Xbox)
10. Best way to fuel fans: #WinterIsHere (HBO Game of Thrones)

Related: How Brands Use Twitter Banter to Gain Clout

Stacy Minero, Twitter's Director of Brand Strategy, says that even though the approaches and types of companies represented in this list differed, there were several common throughlines that brands can look to if they want to have social media success.

Start with these three questions.
The animating force behind every strong campaign are these questions:

• What does the consumer want?

• What do they need?

• What can you deliver?

If you haven't been able to clearly answer those, you need to to return to the drawing board.

Remember that it's a two-way street.
Minero says you must make sure that you are delivering something to your customers that is of tangible value. "Consumers are giving you their time and attention. What are you giving them in return?" Minero says. "You're surprising them, delighting them, giving them information."

Create a call to action.
"People skip ads, but they don't skip experiences," Minero explains. "There's [a] participation piece to a lot of these activations where the consumer is being invited in. They're doing something vs. just feeling something."

Minero cited Microsoft's Halo campaign, which used direct messages to get users excited about the game by giving them a sneak preview. Some 56,000 games were played with 94 percent completion rate. In February, ahead of the release of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, people who tweeted #BeOurGuest were prompted to DM an address to receive a free bouquet of themed roses. The campaign netted 938 deliveries and 32.4 million impressions.