TheBizcoachBlog

Hard data that shines a positive light on the attitudes and effectiveness of sponsored tweets by major brands

As Twitter evolves as an advertising platform, with the latest development being Promoted Tweets to followers, there is concern as to how consumers will react to seeing ads from brands in their Twitter feeds.

The fact that large corporations have successfully begun growing their brand recognition and reputation through social media, specifically Twitter, has given credence to its effectiveness and credibility.  Sure, there will always be the annoying marketer acting like the noisy kid in the corner of the room yelling “look at me, look what I can do” and yet providing no real value.

That’s not unique to social media.  Our ability to unconsciously ignore their message is the reason we have the term “ad blindness” and “banner blindness” which has been proven true whether in print media or digital.   The question is, does developing a network of like minded people who reflect your target market respond favorably to a value added message to promote your branding reputation, your site and your business?  The answer is “yes”.

Market research firm Lab42 surveyed US Twitter users in August 2011, asking about their habits related to brand engagement.  Interestingly, 11.1% of US Twitter users said that following brands was the leading reason why they use the site. The top reasons include following friends (17.4%), to get a good laugh (15.6%), to get the news (15.1%) and to share the news (13.9%).

Additionally, about half of US Twitter users follow between one and 10 brands on the site. Only 10.6% of respondents said they don’t follow any brands, while 8.2% of US Twitter users follow more than 50 brands on Twitter.

However, when it comes to consumers’ attitudes toward Twitter’s primary ad product, Promoted Tweets, things are promising. Only 10.9% of US Twitter users said Promoted Tweets are “annoying and take away from the Twitter experience.” More often, Twitter users are open to Promoted Tweets, with 24.8% reporting that they have seen Promoted Tweets from brands that are relevant to them. More than one-fifth of users said they have gotten a discount (21.6%) or have found out about a new brand through a Promoted Tweet (21.2%). Additionally, 14% of respondents said they have retweeted a Promoted Tweet.

As marketers become more noticeable to consumers on Twitter through Promoted Products advertisements, Twitter users seem open to engaging. If these ads stay relevant and allow consumers to control how they interact with brands, marketers will have yet another social ad platform to use to build up followers.

As the old school obsessively continues to look for the catchy one line ad title. The list of provocative linkbait goes on and on but savvy practitioners realize that few things just die out. They change. Like advertising.

Traditional ad dollars are in mass moving to digital and as companies look for more ways to take advantage of technology to better connect with customers, social media has created yet another broad, sweeping dimension to the internet.

Advertising as part of the social experience vs. being interruptive combined with the ability to measure brings many opportunities for businesses to grow their reach, brand influence and ability to engage.

Below is a brief summary of tips and resources for learning more about promoting, branding and advertising on Twitter.  I have full lists of resources on the BizCoachBlog.com and get even more in depth in my training and coaching to ensure effectiveness and a great ROI for your online home business.

According to a post by Danny Sullivan, Twitter Does 19 Billion Searches Per Month, Beating Yahoo & Bing and still growing.

Testing “Promoted Tweets” has given way to a mix of 3 advertising options on Twitter as of yesterday: Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts.  This can be done through twitter itself or through portals such as Sponsoredtweets.com and Adcause.com.

To learn more about how involvement on Twitter might work for your company, check out the case studies from Best Buy, jetBlue and others.

Here are some general Twitter best practices as you begin to promote:

1. Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!
2. Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.
3. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.
4. Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time
5. Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.
6. Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates to your business.
7. Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers.
8. Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

Your coach & fan

Patrick Daugherty

The “Biz Coach”

CEO of Learn2earn it now Training & Support

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Creator of:  “The Success Steps For Building Wealth Online” The step by step training program that teaches aspiring internet entrepreneurs how to earn money online by launching an internet marketing home business. Learn SEO along with Internet marketing training, affiliate marketing programs, effective social media marketing, getting free traffic and everything you need to know to design any online home business opportunity to achieve your financial goals.

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