Sergei Krylov

Sergei Krylov | 2010-06-19

Are Twitter and similar microblogging services effective for online marketing and online advertising?

Currently, Twitter is very popular, and microblogging services - clones of Twitter - spring into existence like mushrooms after rain. (Here I'll talk about microblogging, implying Twitter, and vice versa: speaking of Twitter I mean microblogging services in general.) This is a "fashion trend" that many strive to follow as fashion. It would seem, Twitter's popularity speaks for itself. It is hard to imagine that such a popular service that half of the Web is buzzing about (for example, this post about the Twitter itself can be "tweeted" in just one-click) would not be effective for the purposes of online advertising and online marketing. But let's not jump to conclusions - the reality is never brighter than it seems at first glance.

Let's start with skepticism. First of all, the effectiveness of Twitter for online marketing and online advertising campaigns depends on how popular the Twitter is. And this is primarily determined by how universally attractive Twitter as a way of communication. And here I must say that not all active Internet users understand the benefits or even the meaning of Twitter. You can often hear something like this: "Well, what should I write there? That I am drinking tea at the moment? It's ridiculous. A nonsense!". And there are many a like skeptics.

Microblogging, including Twitter, compete with other modern means of Internet communications: the (already) usual blogs, social networking websites and instant messaging (eg, ICQ). And, accordingly, as a means of online advertising campaigns and tool of online marketing microblogs, including Twitter, also compete with those similar services (ie, the same conventional blogs, social networks, instant messaging etc.).

If you consider Twitter only as a means of "tracking" the sources of information, there are alternative instruments available: subscriptions to Atom/RSS feeds, including that via Google Reader or similar service, mailing lists at least. If used in such a way, Twitter is not unique, and has no significant advantages.

Yes, 140 characters limit per "tweet" (Twitter message) can be an advantage, because this message by necessity only contain key information, and possibly a link. But it may be a disadvantage, since the 140 characters are often not enough to convey something, while following a link for that makes reading Atom/RSS feed via Google Reader (or a like) or mailing list more convenient.

In addition, the use of Twitter is largely a matter of personal preference, habit and accumulated skills. Those who for several years have accumulated and fine-tuned list of feed subscriptions, is unlikely to actively use Twitter for similar purposes.

That is why Twitter blogs should be considered primarily as a social service, intended primarily for social communication, and only in this capacity its competitive advantages are manifested in full. As such, a microblogging has more reasons to attract vast user audiences (which it does). And it is this that determines the ability to use Twitter in online advertising and online marketing.

But in spite of competition from conventional blogs, Atom/RSS and others now Twitter scored enough (critical mass of) users to be considered as a potential major channel of web marketing.

Indirectly, the popularity of Twitter can be judged by the global statistics of search queries containing the word "twitter" - their counts are comparable to the number of queries containing the word "blog", and has a tendency to grow. By number of registered users Twitter predictably wins over blog services. The reason is simplicity of Twitter blogging, compared to traditional blogs.

Yet alone the popularity of Twitter is quite insufficient for firm conclusions about its effectiveness for online advertising and online marketing. After all, popularity is not all - for online advertising the quality of audience is crucial. Whom and why attracts Twitter? What is the composition of this audience?

Microblogging services have a very specific audience. Twitter is essentially a social interaction, exchange of information, rumors, gossip and news ("How are you?", "Look at this," those "drink tea" and so on "chatter"). This is what Twitter blog is ideal for.

This explains the 140 characters limit on "tweet" (Twitter message or post). I did some simple research with the history of the conversations in my ICQ (instant messaging client software) - it became clear that the vast majority (83%) messages do not exceed 140 characters. The same is true for the sentences in a real, in-person conversation - an instant messaging conversation (eg. ICQ) largely reproduces the lively conversation.

But, unlike the instant messaging (ie, in contrast to the conversation as such), Twitter blog broadcasts messages to more than one recipient - the "followers" - and that makes information exchanges much more intense. In addition, you can follow the huge number of twitter blogs (without being overwhelmed by many lengthy posts) - with Twitter there is never a dull moment, a steady stream of news is guarantied.

And such a specific, socializing audience may be interested in everything. But - importantly - often interested only superficially.

As a consequence, as an advertising platform and audience for online marketing and online advertising campaigns Twitter is good for businesses that directly target end users of simple, fast-moving, consumer products and services.

In other cases, one can expect a low efficiency. In particular, the use of popular Twitter blogs for online marketing and advertising of more or less complex products and services, including those for corporate customers (B2B), may be low, ie the value of such a target audience in this case is very doubtful, unless it is branding, or Twitter blogs of brands themselves or Twitter blogs focused on a narrow subject.

It should be noted, however, that online marketing models that rely on Twitter blogs are now rapidly evolving - there are no mature, well-established models (and no mature online advertising industry like that for search), so in the future the situation may change substantially.

As a result, the situation with the marketing effectiveness of Twitter blogs in general, and in each specific case, remains ambiguous.

There is only one way to know for sure whether Twitter blogging is effective for advertising campaigns and online marketing of specific products and services. This method - web analytics.

Only tracking visitors and web analytics can provide an answer in each case whether Twitter is an effective (eg. comparable to the search engine marketing) channel for online marketing and online advertising of products and services, or it is nearly useless toy, waste of effort and resources.

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Sergei Krylov, web analytics expert/consultant

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