Two big announcements regarding Twitter have hit the news lately, and they have big implications for using Twitter for business.

Twitter Google Partnership means a Return to the Real Time Search

Twitter and Google announced a partnership that is very important for both Twitter and Google.  Twitter has long been a source for the real time web, meaning that public tweets are immediately visible online once they have been posted.  Most tweets are public, the exception being those that are Direct Messages.

As a result, Twitter has become a great source for breaking news and for following trending topics in real time.  But you had to use Twitter, or an application that uses Twitter data, to get access to these tweets in real time.  Tweets have not been included in Google search results for several years.  But as a result of the Twitter Google partnership, tweets will soon be include in Google search results.

This is important for businesses using Twitter because it will now provide an additional set of opportunities for your business to be found by searching Google.  This can be both positive and negative for businesses.  Tweets with negative sentiment have potential reputation management implications, and so listening on Twitter has taken on increased importance.

But businesses can leverage this partnership between Twitter and Google to their benefit too.  If you weren’t using Twitter before because it didn’t fit your target marketing personas, it’s time to rethink that notion with tweets soon to be included in Google search results.   Chances are that your target personas are on Google.  Google will extend the reach of your Twitter profile to non-Twitter users.

This is also big for Google too because it closes a gap in timeliness of search results.  When you search Google, you are actually searching a copy of the web, so there has always been a time delay and as a result Google search has not been real time.  This is due to several factors, including query speeds and relevancy of search results. Being able to pull in Twitter data real time addresses this gap.

This Twitter Google partnership is a win for everyone.

Twitter Video

Twitter has recently introduced a simple new capability to create, edit and share videos in the Twitter app.  This could be great for businesses to share discussions and live events.  Businesses can tweet a video without having to upload it to a third party app.

Video is has become an important part of the content on social media, and having video show up in a user’s Twitter stream gives businesses another way to use Twitter for business purposes.  This feature is currently only available using the iOS apps and on Android.  Video can either be uploaded from your camera roll, or you can shoot it live.  The video is limited to 30 seconds.

Twitter has also added the capability to embed tweets with videos on website.

Have you tried Twitter video yet? #twittervideo #twittergoogle pic.twitter.com/92znRHcIfI

— Changescape (@Changescape) March 9, 2015

Summary

With these new features, Twitter continues to be a force in social media.  With the Twitter Google partnership, tweets will soon be included in Google search results, broadening the reach of Twitter and providing Google with a real time search results feature.  And the addition of Twitter as a native video platform seem to be a powerful new feature.

So, are you going to add Twitter to the mix, or change the way you use Twitter for business?  Please share how you plan on using these features.