There’s a lot of hype about Twitter. Although you’re likely to find as many detractors as supporters for the site, it can be a good idea to consider a Twitter campaign as part of your SEO plan.

The results of Twitter participation will be different for every business, but many businesses could benefit in some way. Here are just five reasons why:

1. The internet is getting more social. Many people conduct a serious chunk of their social activity on the net, every day. This social activity leaks over into other aspects of market behaviour, just as it does in the real world. Any business that doesn’t have a presence in the appropriate social forum for their target users is at a serious disadvantage.

2. Twitter can help your SEO plan. When Twitter no-followed its outbound links, many in the search engine optimisation community threw up their hands in despair. Twitter was once a potential source of link building, but its significance for SEO goes well beyond that. Off-page optimisation is now about building relationships, and a Twitter campaign can be a huge help. Talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about your off-page SEO.

3. Twitter provides specific focus. One of the most difficult things about off-page SEO is getting the right attention in the right places. On Twitter, your target group is quite neatly sorted for you.

4. Everyone and their grandmother is on Twitter. Not five years ago, only the young and funky people of the internet had a Facebook account. Now, people have to maintain two accounts just to avoid their in-laws. It seems that use of Twitter is swiftly heading the same way, as the site’s popularity continues to skyrocket across a number of age groups.

   What does this have to do with your business? Unfortunately, peer pressure is a very real factor when it comes to operating a business on the net. If your competitors are doing it, chances are that you should be doing it too. When it comes to Twitter, more and more businesses are getting in on the act. Very soon, every industry will have a presence on the micro-blogging site, and your customers will expect you to be there as well.

5. Twitter is the search of the future. Okay, this may be overstating it a bit. Twitter is unlikely to be the place people go to in ten years’ time when they’re looking for a cure for laryngitis or the best place to buy dog sunglasses. However, there is an emerging trend for Google to copy the way Twitter treats search queries.

The rise in popularity of social media appears to have taught the search engines a number of things, including how valuable real-time search results can be. Companies had better get used to the optimisation tactics required to succeed on Twitter, because they might be the search engine optimisation tactics of the future. Any site that hasn’t gained experience of the way social media treats search is going to be at a serious disadvantage in the future.