Deranged Penguin

The influence of Twitter as an advertising force is only just becoming known. Traditional media consulting would suggest that you should treat marketing on Twitter as any other “media buy.” However, the prevalence of bots, automated accounts, and other spam techniques suggest that the “Wild West” phase of Twitter marketing has not yet finished. Indeed, it may leave an indelible mark on the landscape: social media analyst Karl Long suggests that the Twitter spammers will prevail for want of a counter-example. He recently re-posted that theory on Twitter, probably in response to the most recent wave of phishing that hijacked a number of user accounts and started using them to push “I made [exorbitant amount] today with [Google Adsense super system X]” messages to anyone and everyone connected to that user.

It’s easy to be grim. Twitter is a free service, and barring certain “officially unacceptable” tactics (such as tweeting the same advertisement over and over), there is no check on an individual user’s decision to use the service as a megaphone for products, services, products that sell services, and so on. As the divide grows between Internet marketers and “regular users,” the risk that Twitter will end up a wasteland of noise and commercial interruptions grows. What would inspire a new user to stay if they are greeted with a solid wall of nonsense? There’s no value in that.

And yet, major media agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and mom and pop establishments are all beginning to see value in Twitter; they post coupons, monitor mentions of their brand, and engage potential customers by monitoring the brands of their competitors. Marketing on Twitter is not merely get rich quick schemes and other shenanigans. The immediacy and usefulness of real time reactions to news and events has been affirmatively established, whether it’s a product launch or a plane landing on the Hudson River.

The question becomes, how much will people wade through to enjoy the tangible and authentic benefits of Twitter, or any other microblogging service? The bifurcation of the Twitter user base between “spammers” and “people who block spammers so that they can have a conversation” does no one any good in the long run. There is already a chilling effect on speech on Twitter, as spammers invade trending hashtags and other hot-button issues with unrelated commercial content. People avoid terms that they would otherwise use because the terms have become spambait. The conclusion reached by Long and others is simple: when you only need a very small rate of return on your message, and the message itself is free, you will keep on keeping on in whatever manner you see fit. The spammers are not going to give up because we think they’re annoying.

What’s missing, as Long states, is a business model for marketing on Twitter that doesn’t offend the sensibilities of the average user. If we’re going to have to live through commercial messages (and we will), why would we not opt-in to messages that at least relate to our lives? We can take heart that many other technologies have been through the same issue: they all ended at the same place. Advertising adds value to the conversation if it is targeted, relevant and informative. In short, advertising is welcomed when it conforms to the niche in which it resides. Niche marketing on Twitter holds the promise of a return to the exchange of value that is the basis of advertising theory.

A niche is simply an industry segment, interest group, or product category that a certain group of people (and not others) are interested in. On the Internet, there is already a well-defined understanding of niches in the affiliate marketing community. The best practices for niche marketing are already quite evolved, but with each new technology, social media site, or participatory conversation framework, it seems that all the lessons are forgotten for a period of time. Niche marketing on Twitter is neither widespread nor particularly well-understood. Those who adopt a niche marketing approach are currently swimming against the tide. But not for long: a useful and profitable marketing plan with roots in shared values and trust will endure long after the fortune hunters have given up (or are so collectively ignored as to be non-existant).

Here’s the best part: we’re already in niches on Twitter. We gravitate toward things that interest us, and we talk about them. We may be broad (guy, gen-x, likes gadgets, jazz and smoking jackets) or narrow (“I blog and tweet about canning”), but we are all already channels. I’m not advocating that everyone should monetize their timelines, but if you’re looking to make money on Twitter, the sustainable method is to remain true to your roots. Niche marketing on Twitter is nothing more than the further expression of your interests. As a publisher (and for that matter, as an advertiser), there are lots of places to get started, including Tweetbucks, Sponsored Tweets, and Magpie.

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