Is Twitter marketing just another marketing fad, or is marketing via microblogs here to stay? Find out how people are marketing through services like Twitter, and what benefits or damages they may see because of it.

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Whether you’re a fan of microblogging platforms like Twitter or not (I’m not), you can’t deny that there is marketing potential there. There’s actually a lot of spamming potential there. I talked about this recently at NakedPR.com, and whether or not spam will lead to the death of Twitter. Today let’s take a look at types of Twitter marketing, and whether it’s just a fad or will likely be around for the long haul.

How it Works

One thing that makes it tough to evaluate any kind of social media marketing is that single tools (like Twitter) can be used in a lot of different ways for promotional purposes. Here are a few things people are already doing or talking about doing to leverage Twitter as a marketing tool:

• Simply adding links to your own products or sites to drive traffic.
• Adding a link to every site update you post (such as every new blog post) – again to build traffic (you’re not getting the Pagerank link juice, as the links are no-follow).
• Artificially inflating follower counts for more exposure (such as paying people to be followers, using bots, or exchanging friend status with others).
• Buying links in others’ tweets.

Fad or Fab?

FAD – Do I think Twitter or similar services will ever be marketing-free? Of course not. But if you’ve read past Fad or Fab features, you’ll know how I feel about marketing tactics that violate the terms or spirit of the tools or companies being used. It rarely proves to be a smart long-term marketing strategy (and that makes it a fad in my book).

Why? Because if your marketing tactics are going to be actively fought by the tool’s creators, your efforts may prove to be in vain in the long run. For example, all the time or money someone spends to artificially inflate their friend count is completely worthless once the service bans your account if you’re caught.

At the same time, being manipulative when using tools designed to foster a community atmosphere solely for your own benefit runs the risk of damaging your reputation (or that of your site or company). That would be counterproductive to good marketing, isn’t it?

As always, think about the ROI compared to other tactics. Chances are that you can do better. And if you can do better, Twitter marketing (or whatever you’re considering) just isn’t a “fab” option.