Monday, February 21, 2011

Why Twitter Can be Better for Research Than Google

Jamie Brown Public Relations gained several television placements for a Dallas health care client. Naturally, the company was interested in the return on investment. However, many of the media monitoring services are expensive and require contracts - making them unattainable for small to medium-sized businesses. Google searches only turned up the top tier companies with budgets for large websites and search engine optimization (SEO). Desperate to help a client, I went to Twitter hoping some of my public relations tweeps could provide a solution. Sure enough my tweet for help was spotted by a boutique company on the East coast. After a phone call and a few emails, we began working together. Without Twitter we never would have made our cyber connection.

A similar situation came about when another client needed a robust research tool. The popular low-cost electronic survey websites available just couldn't provide all of the requirements to get the job done. Google searches couldn't give me what I needed. Back to Twitter I went, and in less than 140 characters an answer arrived. A company following hashtags pertinent to their industry picked up my query, and not long after a relationship was formed.

I'm not promoting giving up Google, rather suggesting Twitter for the answers that are elusive in a SEO driven environment.

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