Twitter has updated its Blog with details that it will begin testing Promoted Tweets over the next few weeks. I’ve been waiting to see how Twitter would monetize its service, and there have long been suspicions that Twitter has been influencing some of its features such as Trends to push an agenda whether that be theirs or an advertisers. They even tried tweet adverts – tweetverts if you will – but soon removed them as feedback was negative.
According to Twitter, these Promoted Tweets will scroll through your timeline, and appear (as promoted) only once. So it looks like they will just be at/toward the top of the list when unread, and once displayed will act as normal tweets from then on.
We’ll be rolling out and testing this new offering over the next several weeks with a select group of partners, including Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO, JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, Summit Entertainment’s “50/50”, TNT and Virgin America among others — with more to come soon. During this phase, you may also see Promoted Tweets in your timeline from non-profit organizations you follow, including charity: water, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Room to Read, The American Red Cross and Water.org.
Lover of all things relating to Social Media, writer for TechontheGo.co.uk, and keen poker player.
