Google twitters away in real time

Thursday, May 21, 2009 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories: Business, Technology | Tags: innovation, media, technology, microtrend, google, virul marketing, twitter

Google admits it has something to learn from Twitter….

Google admits it has something to learn from Twitter.  Google’s co-founder, Larry Page, and chief executive, Eric Schmidt, have conceded Twitter, the micro-blogging site, is beating them in the delivery of real-time information. The duo said they don’t expect to buy Twitter, but they are considering how best to work with it. Media innovation, it seems, is about to step closer to perfecting a consumer echo chamber. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and most other successful internet formats, are not technology companies, they are technology-enabled media companies, pursuing advertising revenue in much the same way as traditional print media and television.

The shift to real-time information consumption results primarily from the increased mobility of media devices – one quarter of United Kingdom consumers confesses to taking a mobile data device to bed with them. The versatility of new media formats allows novices to participate instantly, simultaneously creating a surge in potential content and consumer volume. At its core, Twitter is a form of viral marketing.

Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s notorious pollster, is persuasive on the need to identify small communities, micro-trends, and their world views. He argues this is essential when advancing communications agendas, including advertising. New media helps achieve this by directing content to micro-groups instead of the broadly aimed markets serviced by traditional newspapers and television. (http://www.microtrending.com/conversation.php)

New media structures such as Google, Twitter and Facebook certainly help reinforce commercial messages, but they seldom engage the individual consumer’s emotions beyond a superficial heartbeat. Consequently, next generation media services and devices are entering a new age of connectivity with market niches, pushing an engaging agenda of personalised reality, and self-selecting perception with a less rigid social and moral fabric.

Aldous Huxley, writing in the 1930’s, described the future of self in Brave New World. Huxley could scarcely have conceived today’s technological advances; what he did understand, was something of the essence of man, and society – we belong to groups, tribes. The structure of these tribes is highly regulated, and ‘irritants’ are parcelled off to a special place where they won’t be too disruptive.

Twitter is today’s irritant and it causes concern for network giants in terms of its veracity. A perception that real-time media formats represent unfiltered truth is a false dawn. Unprofessional, almost unverifiable reporting via Twitter risks soap opera versions of important political and social events. But with so much spin out there, more and more consumers are preferring to search out online what others are saying on a subject or company rather than the official line. Johnathan Ross’s book club is just one such example.

The biggest challenge for Google, CNN and other global outlets, is brand strength. Google’s fear is that Twitter diminishes its brand value. Diminish their brand value and advertising revenue goes with it. Work with Twitter and the brand value is strengthened. So, while Google could buy Twitter, it won’t, unless it perceives a greater risk to its brand.

In three years, Twitter has grown from 140 characters to be the third most used networking site in the United States. Experienced brand managers and advertising hacks are going with the flow, for the moment, but some still view Twitter as a fad which will fade. In this light, Google looks more like an asset-stripping corporate raider than a life-long Twittering business partner.