May 8, 2015

Twitter is Coming to Google Search – What It Means for Business Marketing

In February this year, it was announced that a deal had been reached to allow Google access to Twitter’s firehose stream. Danielle Haley, Co-director at FSE Online Ltd, discusses the implications this might have for marketers

The future of social and search are looking more intertwined than ever as Google partner up with Twitter and get access to their real-time firehose feed of data.

From 2009 to 2011, Google and Twitter had a somewhat lively partnership, during which Google unleashed what they called Real-Time Search.

The agreement allowed Google access to Twitter’s real-time post data (known as the firehose), meaning that results would appear in Google Search almost instantly as they went up on Twitter.

Twitter was still young back then, perhaps experiencing growing pains, so the contract was terminated two years in—much to the frustration of Google, whose technicians had invested many hours in developing the dedicated infrastructure to make it work.

Google and Twitter Back Together At Last

Fast forward to 2015 and many things have changed. The internet, along with Twitter itself, has matured, and Google and Twitter are ready to give it another try.

Why Does Google Want This?

Unlike before, when Google had to process 9,000 tweets every second that came screaming from the firehose, they now have total access to the data.

Why is that good for Google? Because Google loves freshness. You can’t get fresher than Twitter, which is the ultimate as-it-happens online news channel.

Rather than trawling, processing and getting information that is half a day old, Google will now be able to serve up results almost instantly. At a time when Google’s market share appears to be in decline, this is surely a game-changer for the internet giant.

So What’s In It For Twitter?

For Twitter, this is all about exposure. While still a huge company, Twitter is not as big as it used to be and is looking for solutions. 46 per cent of Twitter users accessed the site daily in 2013, but that dropped to 36 per cent in 2014, and it is yet to recover. To put this into perspective, Twitter has the smallest market share out of the top five social media sites.

Partnering with Google means global exposure on a scale Twitter simply couldn’t hope for alone.

What Does This Mean for Business Marketing?

It means Twitter is poised on the edge of an attempt at explosive growth. Now is a better time than ever to get acquainted with Twitter, learn how to use it and use it well.

It’s global, it’s hash tagged, it’s user-generated and it’s non-stop. If there’s a news story happening in the world, you can be sure it’s happening on Twitter somewhere, and you can find it with the click of a button.

The partnership with Google is only going to enhance this fact, with the most likely outcome being that relevant content will appear in the Google results as it is posted—a savvy internet marketer’s dream!

Social and Search are Closer Than Ever

These days, it’s getting harder and harder to separate social media and search engine listings, both becoming so intertwined that it’s just as important for people in search to think about social and people in social to work on search.

The new partnership between Google and Twitter is a further indication of things to come, and the only parting advice we have is for you to get into it. Take advantage of the coming upswing on Twitter to get visibility in Google search for your business.