Promoted Tweets [blog.twitter.com]

We are launching the first phase of our Promoted Tweets platform with a handful of innovative advertising partners that include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America -- with more to come. Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users.

Risky move... might backfire. I don't beleive Twitter will ever make money. This will prove me right or wrong.

Risky and ugly.

Why not come clean and call them 'paid advertising' instead of the disingenuous 'promoted tweets', as if they were some kind of star performer at a petting zoo?

Beginning of the end or end of the beginning for Twitter?

Beginning of the end or end of the beginning for Twitter?

Twitter survives because of celebrities, once they leave the party's over. So really, a very small group of people will determine the fate of Twitter.

The payment for access to the firehose will not allow for growth, so Twitter has to do something before the funding runs out.

We've all gotten used to getting something for free on the net, however, that has to end up with someone with very deep pockets (Google or Microsoft), or with a subscription or advertising model. Until we see the intrusion the ads will make it's difficult to say if it's going to be acceptable, a nuisance, or a complete turn off.

Users won't click on the Twitter Ads, just like they already don't click on the pointless and spammy Myspace and Facebook Ads.

>Users won't click on the Twitter

Is that always a bad thing? If you're trying to build a brand, clicks aren't always the most important thing.

Users won't click on the Twitter Ads, just like they already don't click on the pointless and spammy Myspace and Facebook Ads.

That is quite the claim. Backed up exactly nothing.

Where do I sign up? :)

Will these "Promoted Tweets" show up within my news feed? I feel like most people access twitter from apps or devices, not the twitter home page. If the ads don't show up within a visitors news feed I don't foresee them getting much attention.

At least with my email I have a spam folder. Sounds too intrusive for my taste. I do not expect a high click-through rate.

I am going to set up the business where I work with it. Hopefully it is effective!

I wonder if these promoted tweets will show up in Gs universal search?

Twitter traffic is some of the worst performing traffic I have ever seen. I wouldn't invest a dime.

People don't read "tweets" with an itchy clicky finger so placing links in front of them won't generate a significant enough CTR to be worthwhile.

Placing paid spam tweets in front of them will likely turn them off, there's already too much spam on Twitter.

Bad move.

It's a bit of a let down after all of the hype about Twitter's great up-coming monetisation strategy - just do something that everyone else was doing 10 years ago. It makes you wonder why their investors are so keen to keep piling money in.

But like Facebook, the right ad in the right place might work. But I can't see it making Adwords levels of money for the company - I wonder what else they've got up their sleeve?

This seems like a rather weak monetization opportunity - I can go for days without using search. Of course, I do have a third-party app with a couple of keyword columns. I suppose Twitter could push their ads into those streams. Still, it seems a bit underwhelming.

Users won't click on the Twitter Ads, just like they already don't click on the pointless and spammy Myspace and Facebook Ads.

Gotta disagree here...seeing results from Facebook ads.

I don't even backpage when I run into a facebook ad by accident, I close browser.

Another look at the new innovation at Twitter:

"We’re wondering how long it will be before the online pharmacies, botnet operators and rogue security product pushers decide to mimic Twitter’s ads for their own nefarious purposes," Sunbelt analyst Tom Kelchner writes. "Like the search engine optimization techniques that have taken advantage of the big search services, there will be attempts to use the promoted tweets. And there will be countermeasures by Twitter and the rest of us in the anti-malcode world."

Fiendish types may abuse the new commercial service by disguising links to booby-trapped sites as sponsored Tweets, Kelchner adds.

[theregister.co.uk...]