Do you follow businesses on Twitter? Or are you a business on Twitter? Either way, you follow your favorite businesses to get real-time notifications about the latest hapennings and special offers or you promote your own business to connect with supporters and share news. We have talked about the positive role Twitter plays in search engines’ algorthims, which determine what websites are the most relevant – meaning, in large part, which sites are most liked by fellow internet users (people searching and shopping on the internet).

MG Siegler of TechCrunch talked to Twitter’s Adam Bain about newly promoted tweets:

“It turns out that on Twitter, users are already interacting with ads on a level that most would be surprised by,” Bain says. He notes that while traditional online display ads only get a click-through rate of something like 0.05 percent, some Promoted Tweets are seeing engagement in the double-digit percentages. “Engagement matters,” Bain says.

“Users want to be updated when brands have updates or exclusive content. The one problem we’ve heard from users is that when there is exclusive content or deals, there’s a chance they might miss them,” he says. “If the brand tweets at 9 AM, and the person comes in at 9:15 AM, they’ll miss them.”

“Resonance is also really important to us. This is about the realtime opportunity. And that expires fairly quickly,” Bain goes on, saying that in the ideal scenario, the things brands tweet will be “good, not loud”.

Bain says that the realtime aspect of the product is also vital to how Twitter places them. Because hot topics that people are Tweeting about can happen at any time, Twitter needs to be able to talk to a brand and quickly place an appropriate Tweet. “It’s realtime marketing at scale,” he says. “That’s the whole value proposition of the platform.”

A lot of talk has been circulating about Google’s recent algorithm changes, which have still not finished rolling out. Many businesses with prominent organic rankings have taken a dive as of late. Some data from sistrix.com showing just some of the fallout can be seen as follows:

According to the source, the “SISTRIX Visibility Index is an index value calculated from traffic on keywords, ranking and click-through rate on specific positions”. This goes to show how quickly your organic rankings can change with the seasons –typically not for the better. As more and more small businesses turn to SEO as a cost-effective, trackable advertising channel, it is important to realize the value of recurring, professional SEO maintenance.

Once a business is ready to experiment with SEO, it can play out in a few different ways. Knowing the value of search engine visibility, the DIY business owner might comb the web for instructions. Contractors, who are pretty resourceful people, are a great example of this. What he/she would find is mostly outdated information from wannabe SEO’s who took up the profession for a week after getting a life-changing “MAKE $5,000 A WEEK WORKING FROM HOME!!!” e-mail. Then there’s the 60-90 day wait in anticipation of results that never come.

Another breed of proprietor might find the DIY approach to be unreliable, and decide to enlist a professional agency. Unfortunately, this guy doesn’t do his homework before selecting an agency–one that might even be getting him great results. Before you know it, this seemingly legit company has gotten Joe Contractor’s site removed from Google altogether with spammy tactics. His business ends up taking a very real hit with no recourse against some kid in a satellite nation who never gave him legit contact info to begin with.

With a low cost, comprehensive reporting, a brick-and-mortar (US based) location and an army of dedicated account managers, you might find Outrank.com to be a good fit. We make small businesses visible on the internet, which tends to get your phone ringing. If you sign up with us and aren’t happy for any reason, there’s no monthly contract. For a free consultation, call (877) 332-4321.