by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Who would have thought 140 characters would be so pervasive? Not I, I admit.  And yet, Twitter has in several ways simply overpowered the social media landscape.

It’s hard to believe this has occurred. When you consider that 58% of Twitter users generate less than ten tweets and that the top 5% of users are responsible for 75% of the updates, it becomes readily apparent that a relative few are driving this entire platform.  The attention that Twitter has generated, however, has greatly eviscerated these statistics.

On November 10, 2009, Twitter and LinkedIn announced an agreement in which recent tweets would now be available from within LinkedIn and recent changes to LinkedIn updates could become tweets.  Since LinkedIn is a highly successful social media platform targeted for business professionals, this agreement represents a huge – and at no risk or expense – step for Twitter in building its business appeal and credentials.

This follows recent agreements between Twitter and Google and Twitter and Microsoft to index twitter messages in their respective Google and Bing search engines.  The advantage for Microsoft and Google is that their searches will now include real time input.  How they will present Twitter search results and how it affects their indexing and search algorithms is yet to be determined.  Regardless, it provides additional credibility and relevance to Twitter and the need to even more closely follow existing search engine rankings.

It should be noted that the purpose of this article isn’t to disparage Twitter, only to recognize its ever-growing reach.  Twitter provides real time information and feedback that can be crucial to the functioning and perception of many companies. Some companies have implemented successful Twitter (and social media) strategies.  However, the majority of companies have placed more emphasis on other social media platforms or excluded Twitter entirely.

Most importantly, how will this affect an end user?  At this point, it’s hard to tell.  Just by the nature of its agreements, Twitter’s value has increased and it must be given more credence when plotting social strategy.  If you use LinkedIn, for example, you should continue to regularly update your profile since people in your network will be automatically notified.  How will it affect search engine rankings?  Again, it’s too early to tell.  However, since search engines are putting more emphasis on context, person information and social media activity, the incorporation of a strategy that includes Twitter has now assumed greater importance.

All of these developments in this rapidly changing social media world denote its fluid nature and what has becoming increasingly apparent; the need for companies to implement a comprehensive strategy that allows them to effectively utilize social media to achieve their goals.
 
Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.