Twitter as an advertising medium

Here's a case where you really have to decide if the glass is half-full or half-empty. In a survey performed by LinkedIn and Harris Interactive (and reported by eMarketer), when asked about the effectiveness of Twitter as a medium for promoting products and/or ideas, 50% of consumers rated it somewhat or very effective, while the other half rated it either not that effective or not at all effective. The bulk of the responses were either in the somewhat effective (42%) or not that effective (31%) category. Only eight percent said it is very effective.

What's interesting is that when advertisers were asked that same question, 58% were on the plus side, and only eight percent said it wasn't at all effective (versus 19% for consumers). There are two conclusions you can draw, I think.

Either the advertisers are drinking the Kool-Aid, or the consumers are being influenced without realizing it. eMarketer tends to think it's the former. Twitter is highly publicized and popular in the media, but there are doubts as to whether it has any real marketing value. Which once again begs the question: who will be paying for it down the road?

For marketers, it also says you don't need to put Twitter at the top of your focus list. Maybe keep an eye on it to see if anything changes, but it's not exactly the force it's being made out to be.