Comments on: Twitter’s ‘Promoted Tweets’ Will Have Profound Effect on Public Relations

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Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:35:19 +0000

[...] Twitter's 'Promoted Tweets' Will Have Profound Effect on Public … [...]

By: keithtrivitt

keithtrivitt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:01:57 +0000

Kyle – Great point re: the ability of promoted tweets to enhance PR pros' ability to direct our key online audiences to a more “controlled” environment, particularly during a crisis situation, such as the one you mention above for a company's “dark site.”

By: keithtrivitt

keithtrivitt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:59:22 +0000

Katrina – Thanks for chiming in. I definitely agree with you that while promoted tweets certainly offer some branding and messaging opportunities for companies within social media, particularly during a crisis situation, there is a pretty decent likelihood some brands will use it as a spin machine, which will really negate the whole premise of promoted tweets, and in my opinion, could eventually be a downfall for the relevance of Twitter. Hopefully, the “resonance” factor Twitter says it will use to determine how long promoted tweets stay at the top of searches will help to weed out these spin-doctor-only promoted tweets. Only time will tell, I guess.

By: Katrina Florence

Katrina Florence — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:46:04 +0000

Interesting post and a good breakdown of what promoted tweets mean for the PR professional. I think a company is still going to need to be transparent and avoid the “spin” in order to really resonate with audiences, regardless of whether they are paying for the tweet or if they are organic posts. All in all, a little more control of the message sounds like a good thing.

By: Kyle R Sharick

Kyle R Sharick — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:05:51 +0000

Dana Breckenridge wrote a related article yesterday which explained using Twitter to direct your audience to a “dark site” in time of crisis. I feel promoted tweets enhance our ability to share links which can direct our audience to a more “controlled” environment.

By: keithtrivitt

keithtrivitt — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:52:27 +0000

You bring up a really good point, Jeff, re: the possibility for promoted tweets to turn into adwords, whereby the highest bidder is rewarded, even if the messaging and link isn't all that relevant. Though, I do think Twitter is doing a nice job to at least try to prevent this by incorporating the “resonance” factor into promoted tweets, but even then, I'm sure there will be somebody or some company that develops to try to “help” businesses, marketers and advertisers get around this.

All the more reason, I guess, for PR professionals to be on top of their game and learn to live with the blending of advertising and PR, as we can definitely do our employers and clients a world of good by understanding the impact of this and how to use it to our advantage, without getting into a giant adwords-style bidding battle with our competitors.

By: jeffespo

jeffespo — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:30:04 +0000

Keith this is an interesting take on these ads and a great post. I like the idea of the crisis communications application and the branding showing up in the hands of the companies.

My biggest fear is the ads becoming like adwords where the content doesn't always apply but goes to the highest bidder. Hopefully this is used wisely.