Twitter is the place people to go and catch up on everything and anything that their friends, family, and any other person or page they might be following is up to. Brands know that, which is why most of them have hopped into the trend that is a Twitter account. Promoted Tweets have seemed to be one of the more successful ways to advertise using the network since they were announced to the world earlier this year. Today, though, there are those that think that Promoted Tweets are not the big ticket item for Twitter advertisers and they there is another way to advertise on Twitter that may be the future of Twitter marketing. The best part of it all is that Twitter makes no money off of because it’s a marketing method that brands will never have to pay for.
An article from TechCrunch reveals some important information that they were told by Joel Lunefeld, Twitter’s vice president of global brand strategy. Joel informs us that at least one in six Twitter users follows at least one brand, be it for a chance to receive discount promotions or just to simply keep up with what the on goings are for certain brands. This is important for many reasons, but the reason Lunefeld said this is very specific.
“The big message of Lunenfeld’s talk was to encourage advertisers to understand that advertising on Twitter isn’t separate from regular content. Brands should think of conversations on Twitter as a canvas where “you can paint some amazing stories,” he said.”
So, basically he is encouraging brands to market on Twitter for free more often, which seems like a pretty dumb idea in the sense of Twitter making money. However, regardless of this encouragement, conversation of brands on Twitter and Promoted Tweets are things that could work together quite nicely, so that Twitter makes money while marketers get the results they need. The idea here is that brands having actual conversations on Twitter, with other brands or other businesses, could bring potentially more conversions than Promoted Tweets in some cases.
Here’s an example that Lunefeld gave, as reported by TechCrunch.
A tweet from Old Spice asking, “Why is it that ‘fire sauce’ isn’t made from real fire? Seems like false advertising.” To which Taco Bell responded, “Is your deodorant made with really old spices?” (Old Spice: “Depends. Do you consider volcanos, tanks, and freedom to be spices?”)
These two brands are not competitors, so this type of witty banter back and forth can only benefit the two of them equally. For anyone who is following either brand, it would be exciting to see two well-known brand names battling back and forth with witty banter and potentially insulting remarks. In the case above, I’m sure it was all out of good fun, and the conversation will get people interested in both brands. It is sort of a type of advertising that can only exist on Twitter, with their hash tags and public responses. Either way, I think Lunefeld has a good idea here, saying that conversation may be a new way to bring in conversions and overall better results from Twitter marketing.
