Pop quiz folks: What is a Twitter Trend? If you know the answer, you are already ‘in the know’ about how Twitter is considering the possibility to offer advertisers the ability purchase a “Twitter Trend” (much in the same way they’ve rolled out their Promoted Tweets advertising). For those of my non-Twittering friends (and there are many of you out there), a Trend that is a popular hashtag on Twitter (think #JustinBieber (ug), #MusicMonday, #FollowFriday, #omgfacts, #newmoon, etc.). If you need a quick lesson on #hashtags, check out this resource.
All Things D reported yesterday:
“Advertisers will be able to insert their own terms into the list of trends Twitter displays on users’ homepages and on its login page. Clicking on a term would call up a Twitter search results page, which would feature the associated advertiser’s “promoted tweet” at the top of the results.”
Peter Kafka also went on to discuss that Twitter plans to price Promoted Trends at “tens of thousands of dollars” for exclusive placement each day. (Hmmmm…not exactly within an average Human Resource Dept’s annual budget, but moving on…)
If implemented, a single advertiser could create a term to be displayed along with “organic/natural” trends to (significantly) increase their reach, exposure, clicks, followers, etc. (see below image) The tricky part is to offer these exclusive premium positions to the Twitter user that a) isn’t annoying and provides a ‘value proposition’ that makes sense and doesn’t appear as “fake” b) it doesn’t compromise the real value of trends displaying on Twitter. I’m guessing the whole “share your location” concept/info within Twitter will be factored into the roll out of this new ad product as well.
If you’d like to learn more about what’s currently trending on Twitter, check out Mashable’s weekly post, always an interesting read for me. And, it gives you perspective of how big this “Twitter thing” really is.
So, what does this mean for the recruiting world? Well, not much right now since the possible price tag of $10K is more than some annual budgets. But (as all good things in life) the price tag will eventually fall so that the average mom-and-pop (aka. Your HR Dept) can tap into this as a recruiting resource.
I’m already thinking of possible uses:
- Target Twitter profiles within a 100 mile radius of 19107 with the following Trend: #RewardingPTCareers.”
- Link ‘fake trends’ to tweets directing traffic to a custom microsite focused on how incredible the Physical Therapy careers are at ABC Health System.
- Provide the Twitter visitor the ability to directly tweet to recruiters within the HR Department about open positions, qualifications, key questions & answers.
- Or, enable engagement via Twitter with actual PTs who are current employees within a therapy specialty of interest.
- Upload/link to videos of the landscape & environment.
- Provide a ‘quick form’ to capture email addresses for those Twitterers who don’t choose to ‘follow’
- And on and on…
Or…maybe start a ‘trend’ campaign on #Gr8PhillySalesJobs #GreatCareerHere…kinda goes back to the good ‘ole days of making headlines within in-column newspaper ads, doesn’t it? (Now, anyone who knows what ‘fat agate’ is a true dinosaur like me.)
Tweet to me your guess (or answer) – I’m now @JenHitchens
