Statistics Show Greater Use Of Twitter Search: Is This Now A Vital Advertising Resource?
New figures produced recently show that searches made on Twitter are reaching a high volume. The total number of search requests made in one month now comfortably surpasses the number made on Yahoo and Bing combined, although the total quantity of Twitter searches is still only one fifth of those made on Google. This again raises the question: with so many prospective clients apparently joining Twitter every day, should an organisation be worried about Twitter and the other social services?
Twitter would like companies to believe that the service has commercial uses. Its website cites examples where commercial opportunities have arisen, or ways that orders could be taken. However, within the restrictions of the service, this is nothing that could not be done through other channels such as a normal phone call. At best, a company presence on Twitter will only have room to broadcast messages with a link to its normal website (which will have been tuned with search optimization plans).
search engine optimisation is not going to have any impact on searches made inside Twitter. Then again, it is the nature of searches on Twitter to be for different reasons to normal search platforms. Generally, those searches will be for a person or news source to follow, not a commercial purpose. There are also questions arising about those figures. The number of searches made has been issued by Twitter themselves, not by an independent research company. It also does not take into account the fact that many network users use an interface such as TweetDeck which is continually making searches without any particular effort by the user.
Google and the other search engines are trying to include source from Twitter in results pages, so references to a Twitter search will get a high search engine positioning for a popular subject. However, unless your organization is especially newsworthy, probably for the wrong reasons, then there is unlikely to be anyone making a reference to your business’s website. Similarly, as a lot of the messages broadcast on the service are going to be of social interest, there are going to be almost none making a reference to a specific organization.
Twitter has its uses as a way of getting information out to anyone who wants to listen, but it is not going to be a major commercial arena. Any real trade will be taking place outside the social networks. Applying search engine optimisation plans to your business’s website to obtain an elevated search engine positioning will still be productive. search optimization works with all normal search engines not matter which social network is in fashion.
Eventually most users notice that life is too short to spend all day in a social network. Hundreds of thousands of new users may be registering with the network every day but nobody really knows how many are actively using the network over a long period. For any proper commercial activity, these users will be reverting to a normal search engine, and your organization should be using search optimization to make that search worthwhile.
The number of searches on Twitter may have reached a high level but it is the quality of those searches that downgrades their relevance. With five times the volume going through Google, gaining a good search engine positioning on non-social search platforms through search engine optimisation techniques is still wise.
Tags: affiliate marketing, online marketing, search engine optimization, seo, web site marketing