Brands may need to change their Twitter strategy, according to a recent study posted on Advertising Age this week. Brands are barely Twitter conversation topics, and few are paying attention.

The study was conducted by the digital agency 360i and was released on July 27.  The six-month analysis proved that only 10 percent of Twitter messages come from businesses. Only 12 percent of messages ever mention a brand and only 1 percent are part of an active conversation.

The top brands mentioned are not surprising, including Twitter, Google, YouTube, Starbucks and Facebook.

Yet, these brands are not receiving any brownie points from Twitter users with no real positive sentiment. The study found that 82 percent of the Tweets with brand mentions are neutral.

What this study shows is that brands are still not grasping how Twitter is actually used. As Advertising Age describes, 94 percent of tweets are personal in nature and 85 percent are original tweets. Very few are re-tweeting, so simply posting a promotional tweet and hoping people pass it on is not going to get brands very far.

Brands need to take advantage of the personal nature of Twitter and start creating relationships through real conversations. Rather than posting a generic message to the masses, it is essential to post starter conversation topics to a targeted group. Then, follow up with questions, input and a few thank you’s.