Follow the Tweeter

Twitter has had its number of problems over the its short existence, but "fail whales" aside, the company has recently been at the top of its game. This is due, in large parts, to their new focus on advertising.

"In the past, Twitter’s too-cool-for-revenue attitude enhanced its Silicon Valley mystique. The company still tries to maintain that ethos—its stated mission is 'to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them.' But really it’s jumping headlong into competition for advertisers’ Internet budgets." - Bloomberg Businessweek

Twitter is on pace to earn $260 million in revenue for 2012. Yet, users are not bombarded with ads clogging up their entire sidebars, instead the advertisements are incorporated into an individual's feed. Thus producing a less obtrusive and possibly more effect method for advertisers.


Twitter developed much like Facebook when it comes to advertising, original neglect eventually turned into millions of dollars in revenue. Facebook is now the one following in Twitter's footsteps.

According to an article posted by poynter.com, Facebook started to push marketers towards creating content within Facebook on their brand's page on Feb. 29th. Facebook then charges to promote it on user's home pages.

Twitter.com

Although I have yet to see any promoted ads on my Facebook page yet, it is something to look out for. As for Twitter, they clearly mark their promoted tweets with a orange arrow as shown in the images as you can see in these screen shots from my Twitter account.

To the left, Heartland Chevy has clearly been promoted. Users are able to simply click follow if they wish, or just as easily close out of the brand's promoted page.

Twitter also sells promoted hashtag space to brands. #ShamrockShake was promoted by McDonalds to start and monitor conversations about their St. Patrick Day-themed shake.

I'm fairly new to Twitter, but I actually am a fan of the way Twitter generates ad revenue. Many times if I see a promoted tweet, and am interested in it whatsoever, I will click on it.  This is not true with many websites, or Facebook's previous system.

I believe the reasons I am willing to click are:

• few promoted tweets on a page, generally only one
• it feels more personable because it is directly surrounded by tweets from people I am choosing to follow
• it is easy to close promoted, tweets, hashtags and brands to follow

It will be interesting to see if I feel the same way with Facebook's system of promoted posts in the upcoming weeks. If they flow as nicely as Twitter's I think I will primarily be excited about the potential of user engagement it holds for the advertising industry.

Twitter.com