Twitter Adverts: Twitter to deliver advertising in mix of tweets.

Friday, April 30, 2010

By Michelle Kessler

Advertising is finally coming to Twitter, the microblogging service long famous for not even trying to make money.

"Promoted Tweets" will now show up at the top of some Twitter.com search pages, company co-founder Biz Stone says in a blog post this morning.   Early advertisers willing to pay for this top placement include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America.

The service sounds similar to the "Sponsored Links" featured on Google and Yahoo search pages.  "Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as "promoted" when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets," Stone writes. "It's non-traditional, it's easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter."

Until now, Stone and co-founder Evan Williams have mainly focused on growing Twitter's user base, instead of trying to turn a profit.  "Believe me, when your name is Biz and you're a co-founder of Twitter, it also means putting yourself at the mercy of folks like Stephen Colbert who hit home runs with lines like, 'So, I assume that 'Biz' in 'Biz Stone' does not stand for 'Business Model,''" Stone jokes in his post.

Source: www.usatoday.com

1 Feedback:

Jamie said...

If you are a marketer, you should start planning to test Promoted Tweets in Q3, when it's widely available.

A test budget will likely cost less than anyone thinks because the chances of you being able to spend your whole budget is small, given their strict resonance criteria.

Eric Anderson and I talk more about Promoted Tweets and other ways to advertise on Twitter in an upcoming webinar. More details here:http://bit.ly/9FFhRd

And sign up here: http://webinars.whitehorse.com/event/twitteradvertising

 
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