How Will Google Choose Which Tweets to Index?

Google has made no statements about what their plans are, so we don't know for sure. But, based on their history, we figure that Google is going to work hard to find the tweets that offer the most value to their audience. They will also most likely implement strong anti-spam measures.

While the new Twitter data feed will be valuable to them, frankly, it's an add-on. They will be conservative in what they allow into the results, and they will only include things that they have a very high degree of confidence are not spam.

As a consequence of that, trying to game this new arrangement will likely be very difficult to do. Google is going to look for signals that certain tweets have greater value. Here are the types of signals that could be available to them:

1. Links from third party web sites to the tweets. (This signal is already available to them today.)
2. Links from third party web sites to a user's profile. (This signal is already available to them today.)
3. How many times a tweet is re tweeted, and by whom. They may get this info directly from Twitter, or they may use their own means to determine it. (This will be new data for them.)
4. How many times a tweet is favorited, and by whom. They may get this info directly from Twitter, or they may use their own means to determine it. (This will be new data for them.)

I don't see how this deal makes sense for Google unless they get the info on points 3 and 4 above, or at least number 3. This would mean that Google can use re tweet data, and the knowledge of who is performing the RTs to determine which tweets have the most value. This is the source of where I see significant potential value for companies and publishers.

Maximize your engagement on Twitter, and you are sending out signals that your tweeted content is valuable. So how do you get more engagement?