Twitter has, for many months now, been touted as a powerful marketing tool that enables businesses and marketers to get their message in front of potentially thousands of targeted viewers with remarkably little effort, and a surprisingly high return on investment. But is this use of Twitter as a marketing platform ultimately going to lead to its downfall?
Today I talked to Ash Sud – internet entrepreneur, and founder of AdPoppr (a widget that aims to help website owners, bloggers, and affiliate marketers create unique customized footer ads to increase online customer conversions) – about the use of Twitter as a marketing tool.
R3R: How are things coming along with AdPoppr? Getting close to launch?
Ash: I’m going to launch the beta of AdPoppr in two weeks so I am excited about that. The developed product is nearly ready – just making some changes on it now, both design wise and functionality wise. I’m getting all the changes/fixes completed between Wednesday and Friday next week. As long as things go smoothly I’ll launch a beta version on that following Monday.
R3R: Are you still planning to lean on Twitter as a platform to get your message out? I ask because I’m starting to question the effectiveness of Twitter for my own marketing efforts. I’m seeing a reduced clickthrough lately – and I have a theory as to why. What are you seeing?
Ash: Twitter is definitely part of the strategy but I’m also going to ask bloggers who try it to do blog about their experience with AdPoppr. What’s your theory about Twitter?
R3R: My Twitter theory is pretty simple, actually. 3,000 followers is as effective today as 300 followers was last year ago – partly because all your followers are also following so many other people. So, your message just doesn’t get seen by as large a percentage of your followers as it once did. So, in order for Twitter to be an effective marketing tool you have to grow your follower list at a faster rate than your followers grow the list of people they follow. That could prove difficult. That’s what I’m seeing, anyway. By tracking the clicks on the URL’s I post (using bit.ly), I know I used to get 2x to 3x the clicks with only half the followers.
Ash: Well a couple things that affect the clickthrough. One, you have to test and see what time of the day and what types of links gets a high CTR. Also, it’s ok to delete a tweet about something you tweeted at Noon today and then re-tweet it at 6pm to get different eyeballs to view it.
R3R: You’re totally right. My results are based on aggregated data, though: my last 20 tweets with links, for example, compared to 20 or so links when I had only half the followers I do now…all posted at different times of day. On average, I got about 2x to 3x the number of clicks on a link a month or two ago, compared to my more recent links.
It’s not a statistically significant study – just anecdotal. There could be a number of influences on link clickthrough rate, like the fact that when I first started to see reduced clickthroughs I began to use Twitter a little less frequently. But it’s pretty clear to me that my 3,000+ followers are not as valuable (from a marketing perspective) as my 1,500 followers were just 3 months ago. Are you seeing the same thing?
Ash: Yeah. I am definitely seeing the same thing. I think another factor in not seeing significant CTR is the rise of spammer accounts on Twitter. One thing I am getting more of is @replies – significantly more.
R3R: Good point. Marketers are abusing twitter, so other users are getting desensitized to the marketing messages (and probably links, as well). Likewise more of your followers are apt to be marketers themselves. And yes, @replies are on the rise for me, too. Another sign of the proliferation of marketing on Twitter.
Ash: I think people on twitter are starting to treat tweets with links the way they treat a webpage with banner ads. They are starting to ignore them.
Ash’s final point is, I believe, right on the money. But do these anecdotal observations regarding reduced CTR point to the demise of Twitter as a marketing platform. I really don’t think so. Just like with other forms of social media marketing and content marketing, the results you get from Twitter will continue to be influenced by the methods through which you attract your followers, the consistency of your contributions, and the value you add to the network. What this does mean, however, is that Twitter marketing strategy is no longer as simple as building a huge follower list. But the bottom line is that as long as 20 Million (and growing) people are using Twitter, it is going to offer value to marketers whose strategy evolves with their target demographic.
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