Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

In case you haven’t heard about the latest social media craze, microblogging site Twitter.com on the net, on the news and everywhere else, it appears to be THE next big thing in social media. Another site with lots of users but extremely challenged when it come to generating revenue and coming up with a business model.

The folks at www.current.tv have come up with some clever Jib-Jab type videos. One of the latest is about Twitter, Titled Twouble With Twitters and can be seen below:

People use Twitter for a variety of different things. Some use it exactly as depicted in the video while others use it to offer another means of customer service or disseminating coupons. Twitter can and often is a big time sink with sometimes questionable benefits. It serves as a means of self expression for many people and a quick way to communicate for others. Pretty soon it is going to be time to see if it is possible to monetize a conversation. My guess is it is possible but the upside is minimal.

Google has the best source of revenue from online advertising locked up in search. The mindset of a consumer using a search engine is that of someone actively looking for something; trying to satisfy a need. On Facebook, people go there to see what their friends are up to and may opt-in to various applications and offers from various merchants. Typically people dont go to Facebook to shop as they do with Google.

Twitter is sort of a cross between Google and Facebook. Twitter is full of useless information but also has some golden nuggets, however it is still fundamentally a conversation. Can you monetize a conversation or the act of searching conversations? I think the jury is still out but my guess is not very effectively. When you want to search for something to buy, you go to Google or a shopping engine. You may post a question on Twitter looking for reccomendations but that question is most likely to be answered by another Twitter user. It’s an exchange of information that Twitter won’t be able to monetize unless they start inserting some kind of affiliate tracking code in product and site links that people post in their conversations. Should Twitter embark on an AdWords style advertising program, the click-through rates are likely to be in the range of banners ads (basically zero) because a consumer on Twitter is not likely to have the same intent or be in the same mindset they are when searching Google, Yahoo!, MSN or Ask.com.

Twitter can be a cool application for some purposes, however it is fundamentally a social conversation tool whereas Google is an intent and need based “converstional” tool. Twitter will probably burn through a lot more cash over the next few years and months if it stays independent. Since it is unlikely to be able to stand on its own from a financial point of view, it will sadly probably end up as a new Google Beta product. Twitter may prove to be a nice compliment to another real business but I doubt it has any serious revenue potential of its own.

According to the Twitter Blog, Twitter just closed another round of financing with Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. While the revenue stream is still a mystery and yet to be tapped, this sounds like it will give the Twitter team of 29 people room to grow and create a strong platform for a bigger ecosystem to develop around Twitter.

Ever heard of Twitter at www.twitter.com? It is one of the few useful social networking sites. It could also be called a microblogging site. When you setup an account on Twitter you can “follow” other people on Twitter and see what they have to say. Other people can follow you if you let them and they choose to follow you.

Are you interested in skiing?
Are you feeling a little unnerved about the peanut butter salmonella scare becaue you or your kids like to eat it?
Do you want to be able to quickly get information about unfolding events like the plane that crashed in the Hudson River?
Do you want to see what people are saying about search enigne marketing?
Concerned about the TARP bailout that is sucking all the tax payer dollars from US citizens?
Maybe you just want to see what people are saying about Obama.

Whatever you are interested in, you’l find a conversation about it on Twitter.

Unlike Facebook and MySpace that just have random stuff from various people with no particular order to it, you can instantly find a conversation on almost anything on Twitter.

Not only do people discuss current events and hobbies on Twitter, they talk about products, brands and experiences with companies.

What to see what people are saying about Subaru and find people to ask about thier Subarus? You’ll find it on Twitter.

Need to find a place to open a checking account or get a mortgage and considering Bank of America? You’ll find people talking about Bank of America on Twitter.

Thinking about buying a new home and considering Toll Brothers? Do a search on Twitter and see what people are saying about the company, Toll Brothers homes and the stock performance.

Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds but it is still one of the social networking types sites that many people and companies are not familiar with. How could Twitter change that? Use PPC Search! Search done well is a conversation. The consumer turns to a search engine, types in a query which is in effect a question. By linking the keyword triggered search ads to relevant Twitter search pages, Twitter can potentially introduce millions of people to Twitter by dropping the in the middle of a conversation about the topic they are seeking infomration on.

Presumably at some point Twitter wants to make money to generate some kind of return on the 250 million or so it has received in investment capital. Those with the big pockets are companies pushing products. What better way to introduce large companies to Twitter than to bid on their brand names and link to a search page of Twitter results with a conversation about the brand? Since lots of big corporate types don’t know the Internet from a billboard, dropping them right into a conversation would be the best way to get them to pay attention to Twitter without having to sell them on it.

Once Twitter has the attention of brands, retailers and other businesses, it will be much easier to turn Twitter into a company that makes money and work with advertisers to figure out an advertising or subscription model that makes sense and money for Twitter.

Take some of that investment cash and position Twitter as the answer to millions fo search queries and watch the membership begin to skyrocket!