The Twitter Conundrum: Monetizing the Connection Between Users and Brands
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- Author: Cristian Gonzales
- Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The influence and impact of Twitter is often debated in social media. Considering Twitter is averaging 200 million tweets per day from users, and that even President Barack Obama is now personally using it, you’d think marketers would be jumping at the chance to utilize Twitter for brands. However, that’s not the case.
Though approximately 92% of consumers are aware of the social platform, only 8% actually use it according to eMarketer. In other words, its social bark seems to be bigger than its bite. Twitter still struggles as an accepted marketing tool and businesses remain hesitant to invest too much (if any) of their marketing dollars on the platform, as the true ROI is still hotly debated.
Part of the problem with Twitter, as often noted, is the 140-character limitation. But the bigger problem in my book is the language and communication dynamics of Twitter: @mentions, @replies, hashtags, personal timelines, public timelines, etc. You see words and characters you recognize (or don’t), but everything looks out of place and “technical” - too technical for the general consumer.
If Twitter’s aim is to get more of the general public using it, a lot is going to have to change in terms of platform dynamics. But what if Twitter took a different approach?
For example, not everyone can afford a BMW vehicle so its ads aren’t going to always resonate with the general consumer---but that’s okay. BMW’s marketing focus is in making sure its ads reach the eyes and ears of its target audience, not the general mainstream.
A similar approach can be taken for Twitter. It’s probably not going to appeal to the general consumer and that’s all right. What Twitter lacks in mainstream appeal and usability, it makes up for in key audiences for businesses. Groups like socially active tweens, ‘modern moms’, hip boomers, and digitally savvy Gen X-ers are all on Twitter. The problem is Twitter has limited information on identifying those users, their activity, and what they like.
If Twitter can modify their user asks so that it better identifies key information (a la Facebook), it can find a way to integrate effective personalized marketing messages that help put them on a more profitable path. Twitter can then approach a business and tell them, “we have 1,000 active male users between 18-26 who live in San Francisco and are consistently talking about foosball and hacky sack---what’s the message you want to get to them?” The brand/ad message can then be customized for these specific users, and Twitter can find ways to integrate them into the user experience.
Some ways to do that are:
· “Promotional Heat Map” next to trends that users can customize to their liking, showing them different promotions, deals and discounts for their favorite brands
· “Discovery tweets” - tweets “hidden” on a user’s timeline from brands they’re following (or not), where once discovered and clicked on the user receives a customized promotion
· Video ads from brand when a user first signs on with customized incentives for completion of viewing (can include brands user is following as well as brands targeting the user)
· Promoted tweets from brands that pop up at key user moments on their timeline (i.e. when the user is talking heavily about foosball for example, or when the user is most active)
Twitter needs to get away from making their advertising opportunities for brands about the tweet, and instead make it about offering connections to users they know and understand. In other words, give brands targeted audiences instead of targeted tweets. It can make their business more profitable, and give them better insights into their user base.
