Twitter's $48 Million Month: So What?

AdAge asks the question on everyone’s minds in the post-Oprah Twittersphere: Can Twitter Maintain Its Sizzle? But my question is, does it need to?

 

 

The article, titled "Twitter Generates $48 Million of Media Coverage in a Month," focuses on the amazing amount of attention the social networking service has received of late and cites a VMS report valuating just one month of media coverage at $48 million.

 

Twitter received almost 3 billion impressions -- 2.73 billion, to be exact -- in the past month, a time period that doesn't even include the frenzied weeks in April in which Oprah and Ellen weighed in on the micro-blogging service. TV contributed to 57% of the PR value, newspapers 37% and magazines 5%. Incidentally, Fox News bested CNN in terms of total PR value delivered by its Twitter mentions, although CNN dropped the name more often.

 

Now, that’s a lot of cheese in one month. Putting it into perspective, that’s about half what Microsoft plans to spend on marketing Bing—in total. So there’s no question Twitter is getting a lot of attention right now and it’s fair to ask whether that attention can or will be sustained. I think the simple answer is NO. Like everything, Twitter will eventually not be the Hot New Thing and something else will capture the media’s attention. Look no further than the MySpace v. Facebook paradigm for a case study. But does it need to be the hot new thing to be an effective marketing tool?

 

The reason Twitter is such a powerful marketing tool is the interaction it allows with customers. It has the ability to amplify to thousands of followers those great customer relations moments you have on a daily basis. It provides real-time product research and message testing. Imagine 10,000 of your best customers—the people who really know and love your products—at your finger tips for you to bounce ideas. That’s Twitter.

 

It’s debatable what role Twitter and other micro-blogging strategies can and will hold in overall marketing programs and the hyper attention is starting to wear on the rest of us who have used Twitter pre-Oprah, but the strength of the tool is not in the media coverage. It’s where it’s always been: in the eyes of the beholder.