Twitter Eyes Search As Means to Monetize - Advertising Age -

Twitter Eyes Search as Means to Monetize - Advertising Age - ... http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134954

Want to get the most out of Advertising Age? Update your profile now! March 09, 2009 Welcome, Cherrie Clark [Log Out]

Search Advertising Age

Advanced Search

More from Ad Age: Creativity AdAgeChina Bookstore Jobs Manage Your E-mail Newsletters HOME

Latest News Agency News CMO Strategy DataCenter Digital Global News 3 MINUTE AD AGE VIDEO Hispanic Marketing Madison+Vine Ad Age Editor's Report From 4A's Media MediaWorks Conference

TalentWorks E-mail Buy Reprints Print Comment RSS This Week's Issue

COLUMNS Stay on top of the news and stay ahead of the game—sign up for e-mail newsletters now! Jonah Bloom March 9, 2009 Video Report Rance Crain The Media Guy Twitter Eyes Search as Means to Teressa Iezzi Al Ries Monetize Lenore Skenazy Guest Columnists Look Who's Talking Now: Plan to Parlay Real-Time Advantage Into Revenue

BLOGS & PODS by Michael Learmonth Adages The Big Tent Published: March 02, 2009 Bob Garfield Campaign Trail DigitalNext NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- When twitter closed on a $35 million GenNext round of venture capital, in addition to the $20 million it had Power 150 already raised, the messaging service signaled that it intends to AD AGE VIDEO Small Agency Diary be a very big business. Songs For Soap How Marketers Get It Wrong With Wikis Top Work Like its 6 million users, corporations have embraced the service. Video Its ability to take the measure of what is being said at a given time about brands is a potential gold mine for marketers, and it is the first place Twitter will look to generate revenue.

An Ad Age Interview With Jimmy Wales "There are companies and brands depending on it more and THE DIGITAL ISSUE more and finding the insights valuable in how they make Digital Family Trees 2008 decisions," said co-founder Biz Interactive Ventures of Top Media, Web Portal Stone. "What further can we do and Agency Companies to help them?" Ad Network & Exchange Guide Colton Perry, NetPlus senior But selling services to corporate VP-technology America isn't the kind of Google-scale business Twitter's founders and backers are banking on. What is? Well, maybe search. Last summer, Twitter bought search engine Summize and has recently started integrating Also See: search into certain user accounts. How to Select the Best Vendor for Your Brand

Federated Media CEO John Battelle likens Twitter to YouTube, in AGENCY REPORT 2008 that Google thought it was buying a video platform, but YouTube's Revenue Grows 8.6%, Propelled by

1 of 4 3/9/09 2:13 PM Twitter Eyes Search as Means to Monetize - Advertising Age - ... http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134954

real value may be that it has become the second-largest source of Digital search queries. The difference is Twitter enables a search of Our Agency Report Finds the Business in real-time sentiment and conversation. Surprisingly Good Health

"Twitter owns its own search, which is more valuable than Twitter Mobile Marketing Guide itself," said Howard Lindzon, an entrepreneur who launched one of a proliferating ecosystem of Twitter-based businesses, StockTwits.

'No rush' At this point, all ideas are still at a whiteboard stage. Twitter hired its first business-development exec in January, and Twitter's new Also See: funders -- Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners -- Mobile Marketing Tools and Solutions want Twitter to continue to focus on growth before revenue. "It is a big, emerging media property growing at a phenomenal rate," THE DIGITAL ISSUE said IVP General Partner Todd Chaffee. "Frankly, I'm in no rush to TalentWorks Digital Career Guide resolve these issues."

One thing Twitter isn't pursuing is traditional advertising. "We're just not looking at it right now," Mr. Stone said, "not just because we don't know how it would be received, but it would require a team we just don't have." Also See: Innovative Places to Work & Grow

In a sense, Twitter faces the Facebook problem in that it has THE DIGITAL ISSUE created an ecosystem of Twitter-based businesses from which it does not profit, and marketers don't need to pay to use the Digital A-List 2008 service. Benchmark General Partner Peter Fenton said that's really not a problem. "The more applications built on top of Twitter, the more valuable Twitter is," he said.

Of all the ideas now under discussion, the one that seems a no-brainer to Twitter and its backers is the idea of "verified" They Led, They Inspired, They Invented: The accounts. That would allow users to pay to reserve a Twitter Collection of Players That Have Made Their handle and certify that they are representing a corporation or an Mark in the Past Year individual. "That is a great concept, because one of the challenges RESOURCES with social media is 'Who is real?'" said Frank Eliason, director- MOST READ MOST E-MAILED digital care at cable giant Comcast. Jobs 1. Coke: Buy 1 Rival, Get Our Brand Free Ad Age Events 2. Credit-Card Marketing Message: We'll Help Comcast has an entire team that interacts with Twitter, including You Pay Off Your Debt Industry Events Mr. Eliason, who tweets as @ComcastCares, but also staffers such 3. Will Facebook's Faster Feeds, Filters Make It the New Twitter? BRANDED as @ComcastBill, @ComcastGeorge and @ComcastBonnie. But there's nothing stopping anyone from registering their own 4. Gun Makers and Retailers Post Strong Sales CONTENT Increases "Comcast" handles, which is why Shaquille O'Neal tweets as 5. Goodby Does Impossible, Cures Comcast White Papers & @TheRealShaq. Affective Disorder Marketing Information Mobile Marketing Guide Similarly, corporations could pay for their own secure, private Career Guide Twitter to communicate with employees or fans of their brands. BRANDED CONTENT Ad Network + Exchange Guide Stay in front of the latest e-business Overheard conversations 360 Multiplatform Media data and trends The other idea that seems obvious to Twitter and its backers is Guides & Salutes offering paying customers real-time data on who is saying what Surveys about a brand. "What struck us is it gives you an immediate view into what people are thinking or saying about your brand right SERVICES now," Mr. Fenton said. "There is any number of revenue models MORE Subscriptions that could emerge from that." Media Kit BRANDED CONTENT Help Center Scott Monty, global digital communications manager for Ford Intelligence for IT Vendors on How Best List Rental Motor Co., said the automaker would be interested in, say, age to Market Your Goods Share & Save and geographic overlays atop metrics. "It would be great to know RSS (What is RSS?) who we are talking to on Twitter," he said.

Editorial Staff When Ford brings the new Ford Fiesta from Europe to the U.S. next spring, it will pitch the car to millennials. Twitter's average MORE Browse Archive age is well in Gen-X territory, and Mr. Monty said Ford would communicate differently with younger buyers in that demographic. BRANDED CONTENT Download the Print Edition While Twitter professes to be in no hurry, the band is being beaten Build a more effective search strategy (Coverleaf/Texterity)

2 of 4 3/9/09 2:13 PM Twitter Eyes Search as Means to Monetize - Advertising Age - ... http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134954

to market by others building marketing services around Twitter.

One example is Philadelphia-based digital agency NetPlus Marketing, which has its own Twitter-management software, Platform T, that allows marketers to manage multiple accounts, a Twitter scanner and a scheduler that lets them send scheduled MORE tweets. NetPlus doesn't charge for the service but requires users to apply for an account. "We are trying to make Twitter easier and more manageable for our clients," said Colton Perry, NetPlus senior VP-technology.

Search could be valuable for Twitter, or whoever ends up owning Twitter. Mr. Battelle argued that Google and Yahoo haven't added Twitter search because they don't want to make Twitter any more valuable than it already is. But the question is how to turn it into revenue without turning off users in the process.

Now that the funding is in the bank, Mr. Stone said Twitter's first order of business is to increase staff, probably to 60 in the coming year, and then start conversations with brands about the kinds of services they'd be willing to pay for. "We are growing like crazy and kind of shockingly low on employees," Mr. Stone said. "At the same time, there is so much work to do that it's scary."

Share & Save (?)

RSS Feed

Save on Del.icio.us

Digg this

Bookmarks

Stay on top of the news and stay ahead of the game—sign up for e-mail newsletters now!

YOUR OPINION RELATED DIGITAL

5 Comments Google's Revenue Weakens "Twitter is going to monetize Markedly Over Past Month search the same way G..." Ad Recession Brings on the Belly Fat Submit a Comment Facebook Sending More Traffic Than Google to Some Sites Portals, Social Networks Lose Share in Razorfish Ad-Spending Study

›› MORE DIGITAL ARTICLES

Search Advertising Age

Advanced Search

Want to get the most out of Advertising Age? Update your profile now!

3 of 4 3/9/09 2:13 PM Twitter Eyes Search as Means to Monetize - Advertising Age - ... http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134954

NEWS Latest News Agency News CMO Strategy DataCenter Digital Global News Hispanic Marketing Madison+Vine MediaWorks TalentWorks This Week's Issue Your Opinion

COLUMNS Jonah Bloom Rance Crain The Media Guy Teressa Iezzi Al Ries Lenore Skenazy Guest Columnists

RESOURCES TalentWorks Ad Age Events Industry Events White Papers & Marketing Information 360 Multiplatform Media

SERVICES Subscriptions Media Kit Help Center List Rental (What is RSS?) Archive Download the current edition (Zinio)

More from Ad Age: Creativity AdAgeChina Bookstore Jobs Manage Your E-mail Newsletters

4 of 4 3/9/09 2:13 PM