One of the nagging questions long surrounding Twitter has been “How the heck do you monetize it?” Up to this point, much of the ad revenue on the site has gone to celebrities like Kim Kardashian to shamelessly promote products to her millions of followers. “OMG, this Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone is better than sex on tape!” Apparently, according to an All Things D report, that’s about to change, and one of the ways it is is by Twitter targeting advertising toward users who follow brands on Twitter.
Twitter has been selling “Promoted Tweet” ads, which look and act like regular Tweets, for more than a year. But it’s entirely possible for most users to spend all day on Twitter.com and never see one, since they usually only show up when a user searches for a particular term.
That’s created an inventory problem for CEO Dick Costolo and his sales team, since Twitter users don’t use search in the same way Google users do.
“Promoted Tweets To Followers” are supposed to help solve that problem in two ways. They allow brands to send messages directly to people who have already said they care about them — that is, Starbucks can target people who are already following Starbucks on Twitter. And they can ensure that Starbucks’ followers actually see the ad, by inserting them at the top of their timelines.
This actually seems like a pretty good idea. After all, if a person is following a brand on Twitter, there’s a high probability that they’ll be receptive to ads for that brand popping up in their feeds. However, there are some who don’t agree, and at least one giant corporation already haz a sad over it.
Speaking of brands and Twitter, after the jump are a few of my favorites from the “Dumb Tweets At Brands” Tumblr. Just because.
Having lived in Bushwick, I actually know exactly who this guy’s talking about.