We may all have to revisit our SEM strategies and budgets.  Twitter announces an option for paid tweets to show up in searches.

In a somewhat expected effort to monetize all of its users and traffic, it makes complete sense for Twitter to mimic what Internet browsers have already come to expect from search engines – sponsored listings/tweets.  They have already lined up several large retailers and service providers to try out the new service, before opening it up to everyone.

The concept does face some challenges though.  When you compare Twitter use to search engine use, the paid listings may not be as successful as Twitter would hope.

Searches are done with a goal to gather information.

Tweets are typically intended to spread information.

This basic difference is the primary hurdle I see to sponsored tweets.  How many of us actually search on Twitter for information with the intention to find a product or service?

NetMarketShare will be able to monitor the success of Twitter as a referral source.  And, as always, we advise that you try multiple avenues with your marketing budget AND measure your results to optimize your return on investment.

3 Responses to “Twitter – The Next Frontier for SEM”

  1. Dustin says:

    I heard about this last week and thought to myself…twitter traffic doesn’t convert very well. And really twitter should be a social experience they would ahve to monitise it at some point but I’m not sure they’re tackling it the right way, who knows how cheap it is though?

    It may be that thos Tweeters who managed to secure great twitter accounts like twitter.com/mortgage or alike could possibly get page one ranking for $100 per year.. just ahve to wait and see hwo it goes i guess
    http://www.dustinmcmurray.com

  2. I agree with your point, Vince, that most searches on twitter are probably not informational, they are more vanity searches (what are people saying about me) or voyeuristic (what are people saying about him/her?). It will be very interesting to see what the targeting opportunties are.

  3. NM says:

    The most useful feature of Twitter (imo) is the ability to see is a particular service or site is having problems. i.e. If I can’t get to Bank of America’s website, I can *immediately* go to Twitter, do a search and, if the site is actually down, there will be a slew of tweets conforming this. Quick & easy.

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