Has Twitter Solved the Monetization Problem?

Twitter announced that it will unveil the first phase of the “Promoted Tweets” advertising platform. The basic concept is that ads will appear as tweets, but will be clearly marked as a promoted tweet. Twitter has said that the first phase will consist of a limited number of advertisers (Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America), but as the process is refined and user interaction is analyzed there will be an opportunity for more advertisers to get involved. The First phase will consist of one promoted tweet per search results page and if a user does not interact with the promoted tweet the ad will disappear. Twitter is being very patient and deliberate to make sure the monetization process does not slowdown their growth or anger the existing fan base. The system is very similar to Google Adwords and keyword bidding. Twitter will allow advertisers to bid on certain keywords (how many will be available is still unclear) with the highest bidder being able to place their tweet in the search results provided on Twitter.com. It is also important to note that these promoted tweets will only appear on Twitter.com Search results at first. Twitter is still discussing how to roll this out on third-party apps such as TweetDeck. As with any new platform, changes are made and the end product is often much different then the initial rollout. At Common Sense NMS, we make it our priority to learn these new platforms and how to leverage them for our clients. We will continue to monitor the first phase of “Promoted Tweets” and look for ways to capitalize on this recent development. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.