Logging on to Twitter this morning, you may have spotted something new at the bottom of the trending topics column; a yellow label reading ‘promoted’ next to the very bottom topic, Toy Story 3.
Promoted tweets are Twitter’s new advertising platform. When a user clicks on the trend advert, or promoted tweet, they are directed to a normal trending topic search results page, with the difference being that the advertiser’s promoted tweet remains at the top of the page, however many more tweets on the trend appear.
Twitter has been relatively transparent in sharing its plans for a new ad platform and has discussed the development of promoted tweets in its blog since April, drawing attention to its reluctance to adopt traditional web advertising models and insisting the reason for this is because it wants to ‘optimise for value before profit’.
Internet marketing
There’s no question that this new platform for internet marketing has generated a flurry of attention and exposure for Disney, the advertiser, with many users noticing the promoted tweet and subsequently tweeting about it, and it seems Twitter’s new platform may be just in keeping with its value-over-profit ethos. The promoted tweet is relatively non-intrusive and has not been introduced at the expense of a trending topic, merely added onto the bottom of the list.
Additional points should be awarded to Twitter for the very clear labelling of the topic as a promotion by an advertising partner, avoiding user-deception.
As a form of advertising for Disney’s Toy Story, disregarding whether or not the company is targeting the right demographic (are Twitter’s main users slightly older than the average Toy Story fan?), the advert certainly seems to have created a buzz (pun intended). But what does this mean for internet marketing?
Twitter is anchored around self-promotion, with all promoters starting on an equal playing field in economic terms; follower metrics and re-tweet numbers are based on wit, innovation and interest rather than cash splashed, yet rumours are rife that promoted tweets are in fact selling for tens of thousands of dollars, which of course takes the small-to-medium business marketer out of the picture for this ad platform.
This is actually true of any ad platform however. For example, TV advertising; the fact is, only big brands have ever been able to afford the visibility offered by this medium. At least with Twitter, for now, value will still steal the highest visibility, providing that it is valuable enough.
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