And Now We Shall View a Tweet From Our Sponsors

Twitter has finally done it.  They have found a way to turn 140-character status updates into a revenue producer.  Hopefully.  Since Promoted Tweets went live yesterday afternoon, curiosity has been aroused as to how this platform will work, and seeing if it will provide a ROI.

Out of all the advertising models Twitter could have adopted, Promoted Tweets is the least obtrusive to users.  If anything, they will welcome them with open arms because they will provide relevant information and be just as obvious as branded Tweets are already.  Twitter is currently a free promotion tool for brands, and by adding this feature, it provides a push to the top.  The message is already out there.  

How will this work?  It's very simple.  The service is rooted in search.  This doesn't mean that every search query will be spammed with Promoted Tweets, or that Tweet Timelines will be overtaken with them.  Currently, Promoted Tweets only come up in searches and not in Timelines.  Twitter wants to make this transition as user-friendly as possible by not driving Tweeters away by tossing in advertising clutter.  With the use of resonance scores, Twitter will manage Promoted Tweets and make sure they are a relevant enhancement to the Twitter experience.

Twitter will have to closely monitor their Promoted Tweets to ensure  they don't screw up their first take at generating revenue, and they plan on doing this by limiting the number of ads.  They're taking baby steps with the roll-out to wean it onto users, rather than slapping them in the face with it.  This is the best approach to try and get users to warm up to the idea of paid-for advertising.  Let's face it, Twitter is already a giant advertising bulletin board, and now they're trying to capitalize on it.  Let's see if this turns into a steady revenue stream for Twitter because it doesn't seem like Twitter is going to disappear from social media anytime soon.