Advertising with Twitter

Since April, Twitter have been rolling out different types of adverts available to advertisers including “Promoted Tweets” and “Promoted Trends”. Both of these allow advertisers…

Since April, Twitter have been rolling out different types of adverts available to advertisers including “Promoted Tweets” and “Promoted Trends”. Both of these allow advertisers to promote their products, without disrupting the organic nature of Twitter as they are not as invasive as other types of advertisement/promotion:

Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled as "Promoted" when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they exist initially as regular Tweets and are organically sent to the timelines of their followers. They also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Promoted Tweets are displayed in search in twitter and some of our ecosystem partners, and in user timelines for some users in hootsuite.
Source: http://twitter/articles/142101

Promoted Tweets/Trends are currently unavailable fully in the United Kingdom; however, within the next year we should see, and be able to begin utilising, Promoted Tweets here in the UK. The benefits being:

  1. The ability to organically promote something in a recognised format to both current followers and new followers, both of which are potential customers or existing customers.
  2. Very simple to use and utilise.
  3. Compared to other platforms of promotion it is significantly less invasive and better for the user. It is therefore less offending to those few who are quick to block and discard advertisements.
  4. When considering the number of users on Twitter (currently 190 million worldwide), Promoted Tweets/Trends are massive exposure.

There are, however, some possible negatives to Twitter Promotions:

  1. Twitter is, always has been and always will be an organic social media platform. Promotions are still in their early stages and the popularity of them as a whole is still difficult to measure.
  2. The promotions are very exclusive and potentially incredible expensive. At the moment only companies like Microsoft and LG are utilising them and it’s unlikely that Twitter will begin to use behavioural targeting.

To keep up to date with Promoted Tweets, visit the Twitter Help Center.

Other forms of advertisement through Twitter

Alas! Promoted Tweets are not the only form of advertisement! One of the most attractive reasons to use Twitter is the wide array of free desktop applications that allow users to Tweet without visiting the browser. These applications usually come in two formats – free (ad-supported) or as a paid app.

Applications like echofon (for OSX/iOS) do not actually control the adverts themselves, companies such as 140Proof control their “Social Stream Advertising” themselves, distributing contextual and customised adverts to users, giving application developers part of the revenue from click-throughs – a textbook affiliate scheme.

Here are what 140Proof have to say about their “Social Stream Advertising”:

There’s never been an easier, more effective way to advertise on Twitter.140 Proof™ is the premiere Twitter media platform, offering industrial-strength analytics, surgical targeting, massive reach, and expert in-house creatives.

Conclusion

Whilst Promoted Trends/Tweets are currently unavailable to companies in the UK, it is entirely possible to utilise other methods of promotion away from the Twitter website itself, but as soon as Promoted Tweets become available in the United Kingdom, they’ll likely become one of the most popular platforms in social media.

Jason John MillsWritten by Jason John Mills

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