What do PPC (pay per click) and Twitter have in common? Everything!

What do PPC (pay per click) and Twitter have in common? Well the short answer is everything when it comes down to the core of it. The most powerful feature of Twitter (and one of the major factors in it taking off) is the ability to search for keywords or terms. PPC ads are often based on search terms (keywords) you bid on, as in the case of the ones we see on Google everyday.

If you or your company is running a PPC campaign then you should have a list of keywords you’re bidding on and have a core set that are the most valuable to you. You should also know which keywords have the best conversion and which ones are costing you the most per click. These keywords should be translating directly into your Twitter searches.

By using the same keywords on both mediums you’re going to be able to hit more people who are interested in and talking about the keywords you’re interested in targeting. The big difference is on Twitter you have the ability to make a connection with the person and make it a more personal experience than a PPC ad.

Social media integration doesn’t just stop at making sure your Twitter and FaceBook profiles are listed on your companies site it involves making sure that all of your other marketing enhances your social media efforts and vice versa. It’s about looking at everything you have available and seeing how they can best fit together.

What do you think? Any other “basic” internet marketing tactics that could easily help with your social media use?

Thanks for reading,
Josh “Shua” Peters

UPDATE:
I’ve had a few discussions on Twitter with people (mostly via DM or I’d post it up here) about this article and they felt I missed out on a few points or that I didn’t give enough info to use the word everything. Sometimes when you get so used to working and playing in the field you forget that not everyone draws the same parallels immediately because it’s not something they mess around with everyday.

Someone felt as though I was “speaking above them” and felt I did a horrible job of explaining to people trying to learn. I apologize sincerely for this and hope no one was seriously off put by this.

To make up for this I’m going to add a few more points and give a few tips for managing this in a post I’ll put up tomorrow. I have work I need to finish right now, but I will burn the midnight oil to get a companion piece up for you who want a little more info and I’ll do better next time, I promise… fair enough?

Josh “Shua” Peters

image by Koshyk

Tweet This Post

Necessary Tumblings

Not exactly sure what we're supposed to do with these insights. Are we supposed to follow everyone who is tweeting something about bird feeders (or whatever key word we're targeting)?

How effective is that? Is there an example, a case study?

I'm a little skeptic because I know how incredibly annoying it can be sometimes when companies search for keywords in my tweets and then follow me based on that. It's obvious that they're thinking I might be interested in their products. And I think that’s a little sneaky. I don’t want to be followed based on a strategic key word search by a company looking to make money. I want to be followed based on personal interest in me and what I have to say.

My second objection is that just because you mention let say bird feeders that doesn't mean you're looking to buy one.

If I was looking to buy one, then I guess it would be alright. But it seems very time consuming for a marketer to go through all these tweets and look for people who are actually interested in buying bird feeders and not just mentioning bird feeders.

Right?
What do you think?
Josh Peters

Thanks for the comment and first let me say that I do not advocate setting up auto-follow accounts based on keywords. Following in the hopes they will follow you back and buy your stuff is not a good strategy.

The easiest thing to do is to setup your keywords to be delivered via RSS to the feed reader of your choice (google reader, bloglines, etc). Then you can watch the flow and see if it's unmanageable, if there are overlapping results, etc.

Then the best thing to do is read the tweet and see if it even warrants you talking to them. Are they talking about a band that released a song called bird feeders and have nothing to do with you? Are they relaying a childhood memory, or are they actually looking to buy a bird feeder? If you can engage them on a human level then do so, if not, move on.

You need to look at the search results as possible leads and discern if they are qualified leads. By no means should any one be following anyone else JUST because they mentioned one of your keywords. It's all about context.

As for a case study I met one today on Twitter. Studio525 has been trying this out for a while and is seeing a positive conversion rate in his efforts.

Just like PPC it will take time and effort to refine your process, optimize for content and results, but once you get it down you should have a good setup that is bringing you some decent leads for your business as well as helping you connect to the community of people who use / like your type of products.