Your Tweets in Google searches – what does this mean for your brand?

Twitter recently struck a deal with Google that will see tweets show up in Google's search results. The partnership will have a big impact on the way users find and consume information, and more importantly, the way businesses use Twitter.

Below I’ve outlined five things that you should know about the partnership and the impact it could have on your brand.

1. Tweets now last forever
   Tweets (updates) you post to Twitter usually have a very limited shelf life as the more tweets are posted, the further your tweet gets pushed down the news feed and eventually it gets forgotten. In a Google + Twitter universe, these tweets are likely to show up in Google searches long after they are posted. Therefore, it is important that what you are posting is relevant long after it was timely. 
   
2. Impact of real-time marketing increases
   Real-time marketing becomes even more important to your brand. A large quantity of Google searches are based on what’s happening now. For example, content about the Budget or a major industry announcement, would be at its most potent as the event is happening. The value of real-time marketing is big, it shows your brand as ‘on the pulse’ of the industry, an authoritative voice, which all serves to increase your reputation. Real-time tweets are going to get a lot more focus and attention in future.
   
3. Content of tweets needs to be EVEN more considered
   It has long been known that when you write a piece of content for your website, one thing that must be at the top of your list is SEO. In other words, you want to be seen in Google searches. One way of doing this is with keywords. For tweets, it’s no different. You want to make sure the words you use in your tweets will be found in Google searches. For example, if your tweet says ‘Our latest P2P company transaction is now live’, it will not show for searches such as ‘business loans’ or ‘Unsecured SME loans’.
   
4. Engaging with users comments is even more important
   Now, it is more important than ever that you engage with your audience on Twitter, even if the comment posted is negative. Actually, it is even more important if the comment is negative. As mentioned above, tweets now live forever, that includes the negative ones. If other users come across a negative tweet via Google, they will also see that you engaged and that you cared enough to try and solve the problem.
   
5. Increases Twitter users
   It is safe to say that the integration of Twitter with Google will increase the amount of Twitter users. In turn, this will increase the amount of users following your business on Twitter. This will help you to nurture new leads as you continue to feed and engage your followers with interesting and insightful content.

Most of what’s mentioned above you should be doing anyway, but with Google now coming into the mix, it’s not only important, but imperative that you have a Twitter account that is focused on quality engagement. With the majority of website traffic for small and medium-sized businesses coming from Google, the Google + Twitter engagement gives you the potential to increase engagement and lead generation. Conversely, not participating has the ability to lose you leads!

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