Promoted Tweets New Twitter Business Model

Twitter will be placing ads called "promoted tweets" on the network on Tuesday of this week. First the ads will show up in search results and later in users' Twitter feeds on Twitter.com as well as within thirdparty clients such as Tweetdeck and Twitterberry.

Twitter's first advertisers are Starbucks, Bravo and Virgin America - all users already heavily engaged in Twitter along with other social media sites. Twitter COO Dick Costolo has stated that Twitter is not in a rush to profit. According to him the goal is to roll the business model out slowly to see how users react to the ads.

To start advertisers will bid on keywords on a cost-per-thousand basis although Twitter is developing a model called "resonance" that may alter the pricing structure based on impact (how much a tweet is retweeted, marked as a favorite and how much a user clicks through to a link). Ads that outperform typical tweets with a lift in resonance will stay on the network while those that do not outperform typical tweets will fall out. This ad program differs from Google and other SEM platforms because Twitter will only display one ad at a time.

Watch for the promotional tweets this week and stay tuned for more updates on how the ad program develops and performs.

Twitter Marketing Examples

As a Twitter user and advocate for its usage in marketing (for selfish reasons of course as well as some less selfish) it is wonderful to see how companies are integrating Twitter into their marketing efforts and how users are leveraging Twitter for their interests.

Some examples of recent Twitterage (Twitter Usage) include:

• United Airlines offering special fares, which they've ideally named "Twares" to their Twitter followers. You can sign up for Twares at www.united.com.
• The TV network that recently put an RFP for an ad agency with social media savvy. A great opportunity for those who are using Twitter as a business development tool.
• Recently cancelled NBC show My Name is Earl - fans have organized a Twitter campaign to advocate for the show's continuance (see @EarlTwitition).
• Land Rover using Twitter to drive traffic to see its new models at the NY Auto Show
• etc.

The more popular Twitter becomes, the more practical using it for marketing will become. For now it's still innovative but then again Facebook used to be innovative...now people's grandparents have one.

Land Rover Uses Twitter for New Ad Campaign

Land Rover recently launched a new ad campaign...but it's not your average everyday media being used. The new campaign was launched largely through the use of Twitter (yes Twitter) and out-of-home items like taxi TVs and outdoor boards.

The campaign is an effort to try and build online conversation regarding the release of the new Land Rovers at the New York Auto Show.  According to AdAge, Twittad (a social media network) was tapped by direct marketing agency Wunderman to help with the launch.

To see details about the campaign on Twitter, search the hashtag #LRNY (think of a hashtag as a keyword for Twitter).  

Many companies are trying to incorporate Twitter into their online marketing efforts. This is a good example of how Land Rover has done that. I think we'll be seeing and hearing much more about advertising on Twitter over the next 6-12 months.