Google is incorporating Tweets into the search results of its Google Search Appliance - a server-based offering that is deployed behind a corporate firewall. This move is a nod to the huge demand that internal corporate divisions, such as human resources, R&D and even finance, have for these 140-character messages.
This news comes on the heels of Google's announcement this week that it is streaming Tweets as part of its new, real time search results. It also follows the news that Citysearch and Urbanspoon are integrating their platforms so their local businesses users can integrate their Twitter account or create a new account directly from the business profiles.
The Business Case for Local
Then there is Superpages.com, which recently launched the @sp411 channel on Twitter, allowing users to receive addresses and phone numbers via Tweets. Yellowpages.com is also preparing a new local social-search tool.
All of these moves make sense: local businesses are increasingly using social media tools for marketing. An October 2009 study by BIA/Kelsey found that 32% of small and mid-size businesses plan to include social media in their marketing strategies during the next year by using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Specifically, the report found that 9% of small and mid-size businesses are currently using Twitter to market their brands, according to MarketingCharts.
Why HR
Where, though, is the value add for a company to integrate Tweets behind the firewall? And what should marketers keep in mind as they do so? According to Cyrus Mistry, product manager for Google's Enterprise Search team, even corporate workers need social information.
Twitter let users tell one another what is going on around them at that moment, making the results Google can surface in its GSA current and relevant, she said. (via eWeek)
"Social information is important for businesses: employees searching for information needed to do their jobs benefit from real-time news too," Mistry said. "They might be developing a new breakfast cereal, or designing a marketing plan for a clothing line, or writing strategy report for a political campaign. In all of these cases, understanding what is being said just as Twitter users are saying it can be invaluable."
The Google Search Appliance will display Twitter results to the right of the corporate search results, sitting above related results.
