Twitter Introduces New Ad Feature
April 13th, 2010

Back in the beginning of March, the Synergy Marketing Consultants Blog touched on the various ways in which business owners can utilize the internet's most popular social networking sites to promote their businesses. Among the most popular of today's websites is Twitter.

Yes, everyone seems to be “tweeting” these days. And while many people tend to flock to Twitter to reveal every menial moment of their days, many others are using it to make a name for themselves.

The Associated Press reminds us today, in an article posted on The Toronto Star's website that “Twitter has grown quickly in popularity since it started in 2006, with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher 'tweeting' messages of 140 characters or less alongside everyday users.”

More importantly than allowing users to follow the every move and thought of your favourite celebrity, Twitter has now become a premium marketing tool for businesses. The Associated Press article also reveals that just today, Twitter announced that it will now allow companies to pay to have their messages show up first in searches on its site.

Known as “Promoted Tweets”, Twitter is clearly doing its best to cash in on its widespread popularity. The article explains that Twitter has been generating income thus far by providing Google Inc. and Microsof Corp. with access to messages for their search engines. Now that Twitter has introduced a new way for companies to advertise using its site, it clearly intends to increase profits.

Today, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone blogged that it took the company time to introduce this new feature because they “wanted to optimize for value before profit.” Already, companies such as Best Buy Co., Sony Pictures, Starbucks Corp. and Virgin America are making use of Promoted Tweets.

The Associated Press explains how this new feature works: “The new Promoted Tweets are to be 'called out' as ads on top of search results on Twitter, much as sponsors can pay for listings atop rankings on search engines such as Google, Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo. That means Twitter users would see the new ads when they search broadly for topics being tweeted about.”

The article notes, however, that many users of Twitter do not use the service through search engines or even visits to the website. Instead, “tweeting” is most commonly done through mobile and desktop software. Nowadays, you'll find many people “tweeting” away on their cell phones.

Perhaps then, it is questionable if the new Promoted Tweets feature will have much of an impact for companies trying to utilize it. Twitter is already thinking of taking the service further so that it will show up on mobile feeds. According to Stone, if a Promoted Tweet is not replied to or forwarded by other users, it may disappear.