Twitter sings a new tune

Just when B2B marketers are getting a handle on micro-blogging site Twitter, the nascent platform made an announcement that will change the way they interact with it.

In April, Twitter revealed that as part of the first phase of its advertising plan, it will start selling ‘Promoted Tweets’ to appear at the top of results when users search Twitter. Only one Promoted Tweet will appear per search results page. The second phase of its advertising plan will also allow Promoted Tweets to appear in users’ stream of posts.

Twitter is already four years old and has yet to turn a profit – until now. However, eager not to corrode its users’ trust in the platform, and brand, Twitter founder, Biz Stone, has said that the new model will not feature traditional adverts and will only contain tweets that ‘resonate with users’ as part of conversations.

Despite the move to incorporate advertising, Twitter is keen to lay the balance of power in users’ hands by using a ‘Resonance Model’ of nine different factors. If a twitter user declines to interact with Promoted Tweets, for example, by retweeting them, clicking-through or favouriting them, they will disappear from search results.

New and improved?
The changes will undoubtedly change the way that marketers interact with the platform. If YouTube is a way of archiving and delivering video content, and Facebook and LinkedIn are ways for brand and community building, Twitter is for immediate broadcast. A Promoted Tweet could become critical for promoting a limited offer or handling a PR crisis.

Margaret Manning, CEO of digital agency Reading Room explains the benefit of Promoted Tweets, “It will be a powerful way for advertisers to ensure that certain tweets will reach more of their target market – for example for the duration of a limited offer. Brands could also deliver the ability to pay for a Promoted Tweet as a crisis management tool, which would have enabled Nestlé, for example, to ensure that a tweet in response to the palm oil backlash was viewed by the widest possible audience.”

Tim Giles, head of search at Pancentric Digital, agrees “Organic search is about what you sell all the time. Paid search is about what you are selling this week. Twitter advertising will be about what you are selling this afternoon.”

But Giles warns, “If Twitter advertisers do not have a time-critical offer, then advertising on this platform won’t work as well it as it might do elsewhere.”

Because Promoted Tweets will appear when users are searching trending topics or hashtags, marketers will have the ability to tap into real-time news like never before, ensuring their brands are seen to be in sync with the latest developments in areas of user’s interests.

Of course, if not used with sensitivity they could risk recreating a faux pas in the style of Habitat. Last year, the furniture retailer used hashtags associated with the controversial and violent Iranian elections on its tweets, so they would appear in user’s search results, “#MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card” was one such toe-curling example.

While Twitter initially created a level playing field where small businesses can compete with multinationals, Promoted Tweets will change this, says James Prebble, digital strategist at Pancentric Digital. “This model will give many business advantages over others. How would a business like Moo ever become as popular as it is, if Hallmark or Clintons had sponsored ads for everything greeting card related?” he asks.

Prebble concedes “It is well documented that Google users trust paid-for results less than natural results and it is possible the same could happen on Twitter.”

A matter of trust
In the same way that Google has gone from being a geeky but friendly-start-up to a search and cloud-computing behemoth, Twitter’s move into an advertising model is bound to change user perceptions of it.

GyroHSR’s head of digital strategy, Warren Drumm, thinks Twitter will have to play it safe to make sure it doesn’t damage its brand reputation, even if it becomes more accountable in marketers’ eyes. “Twitter should be careful not to loose its cuddly and soft appeal. How much it looses this will have to be weighed up with how much it has to gain from introducing advertising.”

Twitter will also have to be careful when it embarks on its plan to include Promoted Tweets in user’s feeds, says David Johansson, marketing director at Avail Intelligence. “Search results are impersonal lists, which can be complemented and reinforced with advertising,” he says, “but Twitter streams are completely different, providing personal conversations that promoted content only serves to interrupt and corrupt.”

In Johansson’s opinion, the real value of Twitter lies in genuine conversations that brands encourage amongst their customers. “The ability to display positive customer conversation on your website’s Twitter feed offers a less intrusive marketing approach that is more in line with what the channel is about.” Users, he says, are more likely to join in a ‘cool’ conversation than retweet an advert.

However, Rupert Cheswright, head of experiential at Line Up, believes that more traditional web banners would be a better, more transparent option for income generation for Twitter. “At this point in time Twitter really is a vox populi. It would be a shame to pollute this idea, or for it to go the way of Bebo. Sometimes keeping the purity of an idea is what gives the real value to the audiences.”

The ROI of social media activity continues to be a debate that rages on for B2B marketers. While some social media evangelists insist that its ROI comes in the form of followers, conversations, leads and attitude changes, the introduction of Promoted Tweets has been seen by many as a way of finally generating some accountability from Twitter.

However, doubts still remain about how Twitter can ensure consistent delivery, especially now that some users will be paying to tweet. Henry Ellis, associate director social media at search and social conversation agency Tamar, says Twitter’s much-noted down-time could be a concern for potential advertisers “Twitter’s ‘fail-whale’ makes regular appearances at times of high traffic, but these times are also, naturally, the ones when advertisers would want to ensure their ads are being seen. Twitter will need to ensure that it has better data-centres and fail-overs in place to ensure to ensure this doesn’t happen when the ad model is rolled out.”

If the news of paid-for Twitter advertising isn’t enough to attract brands to the platform then maybe Google’s latest announcement to archive all tweets (from the very first tweet in 2006) will entice them instead. Google’s development means users can zoom to any point in time and ‘replay’ what people were saying publicly on Twitter. It means that customers will be able to see every tweet posted about your brand – good or bad.

It is unlikely that Twitter’s Promoted Tweets will be the last change the company makes to the platform, but whatever the future holds Promoted Tweets, like any other form of advertising will live or die by how much they resonate.

Build it and they will come… with a bit of persuasion

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