Sunday, July 13, 2014

Twitter Positions Itself As the Cost-Effective, Data-Driven Advertising Alternative

In response to the insatiable thirst by marketers for data and analytics to track marketing goals, Twitter has just released a suite of tools that will allow individuals to view the level of engagement created a by each tweet. The platform is available for publishers, developers, or advertisers who use the Twitter Card. Twitter Cards allow you to tweet more than simple text. They provide a more media rich method for sending out content on Twitter such as photos galleries, summary cards with images, app download cards, and player cards with videos. The Twitter Analytics tool provides information on measurements including how many times a tweet has been viewed or retweeted as well as the number of clicks on links within the tweet and the user profile. It also details the number of times a company has been followed as a direct result of a certain tweet. While the setting up Twitter cards and setting up the code to obtain the analytics seem a bit more complex than Google’s system, it will likely become more user friendly over time.
Twitter Card Example:
This development of this analytic system for advertisers and other users is signal of Twitter’s more proactive approach to become a ad-friendly environment. On Friday, the company also announced that through Twitter brands can reach up to 30% of their Twitter followers on a weekly basis, for free, with a consistent strategy of tweeting 2-3 times a day. Twitter is comparing itself to a platform like Facebook in which brands need to pay to be seen by more than 5% of fans. The company has been quoted as saying:
 "On Twitter, nothing comes between your tweets and your followers "
 This is in direct contrast to Facebook’s curated feeds that use algorithms to control what appears in a users news feed. While some users view this curation as more targeted and therefore appealing to users, others view it as taking control away from profile owners and limiting content they may want to view. As Twitter’s new analytics tool rolls out, it may serve as a credible threat to ad dollars that previously were going to Facebook.

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