June 30th, 2010 by Susie

The complex world of social media marketing is in constant flux. An example of this is the remarkable internationalisation of Facebook and Twitter. However, new innovations to existing social media networking sites can be highly relevant to ongoing campaigns. This is because more effective ways of accessing the huge audiences are at an absolute premium and so monitoring the changes and responding to them is of the utmost importance. So when something fresh comes over the horizon, research, crosschecking, interpretation and theorising have to be accomplished with alacrity. This in turn enables swift strategy adjustment for those sites where change is necessitated.

A case in point is Promoted Tweets. Some experts believe that they could eventually have a transformational influence on Twitter use and a profound impact on the commercial exploitation of Twitter in particular. Indeed, a prominent commentator has even mentioned Promoted Tweets in the same breath as Google AdWords. The true importance of Promoted Tweets appears to be basically twofold.

Firstly, Twitter will display promoted posts in the Twitter posts. Just as AdWords permits advertisements to be featured in the results of Google in response to search queries, so this opens up commercial possibilities that did not exist on Twitter not so long ago. Keywords can be purchased for advertising purposes and a social media marketing strategy may involve doing just this.

Secondly, the Promoted Tweets will be displayed in a way in which the identity of the specific user is considered. Therefore this will facilitate the targeting of particular audiences in future campaigns. This will be done by measuring something which Twitter described as “resonance.” Resonance consists of ascertaining that a certain number of people viewed the post, retweeted it or had a closer look via the link, for instance. In short, the level of resonance achieved by a Promoted Tweet will work roughly as a type of quality control. Users will thus view tweets which have been assessed as worthy of their attention.

The implications of this are complex and disputed. For instance, some people object to the projected additional commercialisation of Twitter. Other observers have welcomed the change, while many have reserved judgement until they can see which way the wind is blowing. However, on the positive side (for users and for efficient marketers) is the fact that Twitter users will determine the value of an advertisement. SMO experts will have to craft their advertisements with care. At the same time, those with sufficient capital will have the potential ability to have a much greater influence than ordinary Twitter users, a rebalancing which should be of assistance to making some improvements with reference to brand development.

When it comes to understanding the evolving world of social media marketing, knowledge can be gathered from various sources. For example, much can be learned by accessing relevant blogs and keeping your ear to the virtual ground. However, it is through implementation and experience that skills develop further. One thing which works very well in this regard is information pooling within the firm. At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we take this seriously.

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