Twitter today announced that its new Location Spotlight feature is available to any business with a Professional Account – its paid tier for SMB and brand marketing. Location Spotlight was previously tested with businesses in the U.S., U.K, Canada and Australia but today rolls out globally.
For those unfamiliar, Location Spotlight lets SMBs add listings content to their profiles, including location, contact info, and hours of operation. Users see this content when they go to a given business’ profile, which is linked directly from its handle, wherever it shows up on Twitter or in apps like TweetDeck.
Stepping back, this represents the latest in Twitter’s ongoing effort to diversify revenue. Under that umbrella, it continues to make moves that address SMB marketing needs, among other things. For example, Location Spotlight follows closely behind the launch of Product Drop for online merchants.
Lower-Funnel Action
Going a bit deeper on Location Spotlight, it’s meant to drive action by offering utility beyond basic business profile info and metadata. For example, if users tap on a business’s location in their profile, it will launch the device’s default mapping app, such as Google Maps, for directions.
The same goes for contact info. Linked text will launch a given function – be it email, phone or text. This makes Location Spotlight sort of like Google knowledge panels (search) or business cards (Maps). It also formalizes business info – which business users display in various ways – into a more structured UX.
In that light, Location Spotlight seems to position Twitter further down the funnel. This is congruent with its recent moves towards shoppability. Throughout its life, Twitter has been more of a reach medium for upper-funnel brand awareness. But like many other players, it’s moving towards lower-funnel action.
The question is if listings data is misaligned with Twitter’s overall product persona. But the company clearly sees a revenue opportunity in becoming more of an SMB marketing channel. And it’s not alone… we see everyone from Instagram to TikTok chasing traditional local search & mapping features.
Free Carrot
As for availability, Location Spotlight now comes bundled for any business that has a Twitter Professional Account, as noted. This is a free program for businesses, positioned as a way to ease them into using Twitter as a marketing tool. Once there, the hope is that some convert to paid advertisers.
In that spirit, consider Location Spotlight one step upstream in that loss-leader conversion flow. Twitter’s intention here could be to provide a feature that entices more SMBs into signing up for a Professional Account… where they’ll be led further down the path toward paid ads and amplification.
And that brings us full circle to revenue diversification and growth. Twitter is known to be under-monetized considering its global usage, engagement levels, and cultural influence. Now, amid varying shades of a management shakeup, new products and features are being rolled out rapidly.
Speaking of which, Twitter announced as part of Location Spotlight’s global rollout today that a resource hub called Professional Home will be available for Professional Accounts. It will contain educational materials, live workshops, and analytics tools… yet another free carrot for Professional Accounts.
Expect this trend to continue as Twitter finds its footing in the near term and looks to evolve its business with a shifting technological and cultural landscape… with or without Elon Musk.
