New Twitter Ads Can Boost B2B Marketing

Heard the latest buzz?  There’s some good stuff going on in the world of Twitter.  They’ve just launched their long-awaited (and fully predicted) ad program.  Don’t confuse this with the @ program (phonetics just aren’t as fun in the written world).  This one is all about promotional Tweets.

During the initial beta phase of this new program, Promoted Tweets will only appear in search results within the Twitter multiverse when users perform searches there.  There will only be one promoted search result per search query and it will remain at the top of the results.  You can identify these Promoted Tweets as they will appear yellow on mouse over and will show “Promoted Tweet” in small highlighted text.

Are you going to ask me now how this can impact B2B?

I thought you might.  This means that B2B companies will now have the ability to acquire Twitter search terms in order to obtain higher visibility for their posts (tweets).  This boils down to like Google Adwords for Twitter.  Twitter has specifically stated that only existing tweets can be promoted, and if those tweets don’t become popular or lack retweet juice then they’ll be pulled down to make room for other query results.

The nice thing about this is that Twitter is trying to keep the community value of twitter alive and make sure that the advertisers are providing value to the users.  Right now it’s just the powerhouse companies like BestBuy and Starbucks that are paving the way through the trial but it won’t take long for the gates to open up for the little guy.

Here are some great ways that marketers can put on the bigboy gloves and start using Promoted Tweets to soak up the business and visibility.

1. Gain More Impressions

A lot of the tweets that hit the live stream have a pretty short lifespan even when retweeted.  Only a small number of followers checking twitter when you post might actually see it and pull it through to pass around.  Using #hashtags and @follower drops to specific people following you can boost the amount of people who are ultimately exposed – thus by purchasing certain keywords coupled with these factors your tweet gets shot out into the Twitter multiverse where far more people than would otherwise bear witness to the awesomeness of your business.  This includes people who wouldn’t even typically see your conversations.  Say hello to the conversions.

2. Expand the Reach of Keywords

A major factor to marketing on the internet (and a huge perk of utilizing social media) is the focus on keywords in order to push traffic toward your web pages and other targeted website.  When you purchase those keywords and couple them with Twitter advertising utilizing similar keyword searches that include backlinks to your site then you will, without a doubt, expand the reach of your keywords.

3. Test Tweets and Save Moola

Twitter has blatantly stated that Promoted Tweets MUST speak to users.  That means they have to generate some viral boom and people need to be a’clickin.  If not, Twitter will pull them.  You know what?  That’s great!  I say pull em down!  Why?  Because this gives you the ability to quickly test your tweets to discover what works and what doesn’t.  The only difference between this and Google is that Twitter will pull your ads down while Google sits back and takes your money when people continue to click.

4. Sponsoring Hashtags

The almighty #hashtag is used on twitter to link various topics and convo’s through the Twitter multiverse (I keep saying that, and I’m hard pressed to think it’s any smaller than that).  While as a business, you can use these hashtags to help promote posts and be seen in more relevant conversations, if you buy the hashtags for your Promoted Tweets then you can get your convo bit launched to the front of other people searching the terms you use.

5. Increase Speed of Message

Twitter is touted for the rapid fire system in which messages can be shot out.  With Promoted Tweets, you can get messages out in faster to a wider base of people that aren’t even following you.  With paid tweets, you’re already reaching beyond your own followers so the potential for retweets is greater, while at the same time the necessity for retweets is lessened because of the broader reach of your message.

Nice.

Like everything that we experience on the web, Promoted Tweets are being rolled out in phases.  Also, like anything shiny and new, there are a lot of people wanting to get their hands on it.  The resulting playground romp with the new toy will reveal things that don’t work and much needed additions.  It will be entertaining, and interesting (and lucrative to many) to see how this entire new system gets implemented as well as the impact it will have on leveraging keyword research.

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2. Spiking your Local Impact with Twitter
3. How To – Linking WordPress and Twitter
4. Social Media Romp – GM Leads by Example
5. Building Your Brand – Manage Twitter Like a Pro