Why you need sponsored Tweets in your marketing
I hate the term "advertising on social media" because it invokes what consumers hate most about ads which is interruptive selling. However the new promoted Tweets via Twitter may give brands a way to get into the social media conversation without really interrupting consumers.
According to
recent Twitter stats over 90 million searches are
done via Twitter. If a consumer, for example,
searched for the term flatscreen TV a promoted
Tweet could refer them to sources of great prices
within their neighborhood for flatscreen TV's.
Want to find a great Chinese restaurant in Austin
Texas ? No problem use Twitter search and you'll
be directed to some great local eateries with
links to customer reviews. This could change
social media in a big way.
Twitters promoted Tweets is not without risks. If
users feel they are being spammed they will most
likely take it out on Twitter and leave the
website but if it's done right it could be a
great marketing tool. Here are some tips to using
sponsored Tweets:
(1)
Don't sell too much: Sponsored Tweets
should be informative and should not sound like a
used car salesman.
(2)
Be informative and direct people for more
information- Help them get
the information they need to make a decision.
This means using track back URL's that go to
websites that meet their expectations. If, for
example, someone is looking for Pizza in Chicago
don't send them to a website listing 100's of
restaurants send to a home page that lists "the
best Pizza in Chicago as voted by our customers".
(3)
Optimize and track: This is not
something where you lock and load and sit back.
You'll need to do some research on the terms
you're using to promote your Tweets and you also
should be tracking conversion rates via web
analytics to ensure that it's working.
(4)
Identify influencers: You'll get a
chance to attach your sponsored Tweets to Twitter
users but don't think that just because someone
has a lot of followers that they are more of an
influencer than someone who doesn't have tens of
thousands. Identify the Twitter influencers by
what they say not how many are following them. As
data shows, successful social media marketing
isn’t simply about amassing thousands of
followers, but instead precisely identifying the
most influential members of your audience and
recognizing them for their value. By directly
engaging one influencer with exclusive
opportunities, special offers, and unique
content, you are indirectly engaging thousands of
other people who are part of this influencer’s
social sphere.
Google gets into Twitter
Google’s adding an intriguing new feature to its Twitter search options –- the ability to “replay” a moment in time to see what people were tweeting about a given topic at any point between the present and the advent of the microblogging tool.
The feature will be accessible from Google’s advanced search options under “Updates,” where users can then zoom in on a specific date or date range on a timeline to pull up tweets about their query. Initially, tweets will go back only to this February. However, Google plans to offer up tweets going all the way back to the very first one, which took place on March 21, 2006.
This feature marks a big addition to Google’s existing real-time search features, which pull in tweets (and Facebook and MySpace updates) for queries breaking news topics. It’s also exactly what’s made possible through the data partnerships that Twitter has formed with Google, Microsoft and, more recently, a number of startups. It’ll go live for English users within the next few days, but you can already test it here.
With Google's new Twitter search feature you can
track your brand's
Tweets over time
