Facebook fan pages have become a key part of many brands' social media marketing strategy, with some 20 million created to date. But what about Twitter fan pages? That's the concept behind a new
Twitter application Web conferencing service Fuze Box is offering that allows users to create branded Twitter pages for posting a range of content and promotions.
Fuze Box's Tweetshare app allows people to sign up as a fan of a brand's Twitter page and automatically publishes comments posted on the page into the public Twitter stream
to help virally spread content. Likewise, responses posted on the microblogging site will appear on the fan page to show the full range of conversation around a topic.
Users will be able to log
into Tweetshare using their existing Twitter account information, uploading content to their page and tweeting it out to the Twitter community.
"Tweetshare integrates brands' content directly
into the Twitter stream, adding a viral element to the conversation and providing an aggregated, interactive channel other than a company's blog or Web site, to connect with current and potential
customers," said Patrick Moran, chief strategy officer at Fuze Box, which competes with companies like Cisco's WebEx and GoToMeeting.
It also provides another option besides linking tweets to
Facebook fan pages. Moran said Tweetshare provide a more tightly integrated alternative to Facebook for marketers seeking to engage Twitter users more deeply in branded content or campaigns. That
might include everything from polling tools to customized landing pages to hosting online media rooms with video, slide presentations and PDFs.
Whether companies really want to add another social
media outpost on top of Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, blogs and other online outlets remains to be seen.
What's more, many other Twitter clients already offer content-sharing, and others such
as Seesmic provide conversation threading as well. "The critical question is 'why would a user or a brand visit and care about this aggregated page versus their main twitter page using the client of
their choice?'" said Shiv Singh, global social media lead at Razorfish. Moran indicated that various popular Twitter apps focus on one key function, like Twitpic for photo-sharing or TwitVid for
video-sharing. Tweetshare aims to provide more of a one-stop-shop for uploading and accessing different types of content "in one nice easy package."
Tweetshare fan pages also come with analytics
tools and dashboard reporting metrics such as total views, replies received and discussions started. Fuze Box is also simultaneously launching a version of the app for the iPhone, and plans to release
one for Android phones as well as the forthcoming iPad. Moran said the company will also publish an API for Tweetshare allowing potential integration with Twitter management apps like TweetDeck.
How will the company make money from the Twitter app? While Tweetshare is launching as a free service, Fuze Box may eventually add premium services such as the ability to repost comments to Facebook
accounts or the option of adding more extensive branding to a Twitter fan page.
To help get the buzz going about the new app itself, Fuze Box will be demo Tweetshare at the SXSW conference later
this week by working with video bloggers who will post live content from the interactive, video and music events.
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