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In the PPC world, many of us are eager to monetize anything that has to do with either the possibility of a conversion and/or persuasion points leading up to a conversion, where it all leads back to their PPC efforts. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact, it’s just another stage in the evolution of understanding the power of PPC.
However, with the adoption and popularity of more and more businesses utilizing Twitter and Facebook, should we consider the monetization of a single FOLLOWER as equal or more valuable as someone who signed up for an email newsletter. We must ask ourselves the question: Is a Twitter follower considered more important than an email these days?
We can debate the differences and similarities between a follower and an email until were blue in the face, but what matters most is identifying if their is lifetime value or even a “shelf life” of obtaining a Twitter follower and if it qualifies as a conversion, especially in PPC. In my opinion, a value should be given to a new follower, even though pushing products and services is not considered the “best ethical” thing to do on Twitter. Not to mention, they can, at any moment, stop following you as if they unsubscribed from your email list.
Bottomline: Even though it may be difficult to track a new twitter follower for a specific keyword in PPC, it should be considered a best practice to capture anyone who may be interested in your company’s products or services. If you have a Twitter strategy in place and have tested the response of your tweets, then you should come up with a generalized value for acquiring a new follower. What’s the worse that could happen? You get FREE Word of Mouth, Increase in sales or leads, FREE way to test something new or just have the satisfaction of knowing your company is catching up with the times.
