Very compelling article in Ad Age today from Peter Hershberg at Reprise Media about search and social media called What Social Media Means for Search. On the upside, it adds to the observation that search and social media are coming together, and it also provides a good backgrounder for understanding the relationship. However, it does not offer any tactical side to take advantage of this activity.

Using his Search 3.0 label, Peter and I agree that the new feed-driven social world takes us beyond the “intent” shown by a user during their search engine experience and provides us direct insight to the “it is happening now” stage, such as the millions of daily tweets for “need coffee.”

We’ve heard the story forever from proponents of mobile advertising that they will be able to deliver a Dunkin’ Donuts (my coffee of choice) coupon when we walk past a store. Great in theory, but when does it reach the masses and will it work? My answer to when, is who knows. I’m sure it can happen now with the proliferation of location-based services, but is it better plan than monitoring social media feeds — I say no.

The mobile ad plan is not marketing to a person who has shown intent in this activity; they just happen to be walking by a Dunkin’ Donuts, so now you are hoping that you can change a user behavior as they pass by. However, monitoring a Twitter/Facebook feed will directly let you know who is going to get coffee, NOW! It is up to the marketeer to hit them directly with the coupon for the coffee or a complimentary donut. I guess the next question is when will Twitter or the Twitter apps we use start monitoring our Twitter feeds, or Facebook for that matter, to match ads to its updates.

Update: As I was posting this, I took a look back at the current Ad Age they have posted an article “Google Uses Twitter to Sell Ads.” So it looks like this idea is taking its first steps. This will evolve to feed-targeted networks, not the general Adsense network, because the higher “happening now” feed network will be drive higher CPC values.