Twitter and its PTT

Whilst working on social media account, I recently noticed that there was a trending topic, for both UK and Worldwide, which had a promoted image next to it.

Forgive me if I have missed this amazing craze, but when discussing this with my fellow seo superheroes they seemed a little uncertain on this topic also (click the image to open in a new window).






I understand that these are brands who have introduced a PTT (Promoted Trending Topic) into their social strategy. I began to wonder just how beneficial this concept is to the client and their brand. 

And the answer is...

According to research from a number of industries and experts the answer is simple. Companies are now able to predict how well their company and brand will do through the mood of Twitter users.

A news article from the Daily Mail highlighted the main facts and discussed how ‘researchers at Indiana University in the US noticed a mood correlation after they analysed more than 9.8 million tweets from 2.7 million users during 10 months in 2008’ - as a result of these statistics brands around the world are now beginning to test out their new product through Twitter. It has even been reported that the US stock market are able to predict their success up to three days in advance.

More than ever, companies are using Twitter as a branding exercise to promote their products and services. Through paying for a top position within the trending topics section, a company is able to create immediate awareness for the consumer, test its levels of success and monitor the consumer’s response.  

The advantages and disadvantages of a PTT

Paying Twitter for a PTT (Promoted Trending Topic) has the potential to provide valuable information and can be a cost effective strategy.
 
An advantage of the PTT idea is that the overall concept has the potential to work better for a large scale company. A disadvantage is that more and more companies will begin to use this strategy, which may result in a situation in which 'the highest bidder wins', rather than the most relevant.

For millions of users, the beauty of Twitter is that it enables millions of people to freely share knowledge with friends and strangers around the world. However, if the Twitter team begin to overload their site with advertising messages, their popularity will drop.