Now, twitter is one medium that seems to be doing a whole lot of things right in the middle of so many wrongs. What wrongs you ask?
Well, the current PRISM-related allegations have rocked Facebook and Google among other social media and internet giants, but Twitter remains out of this almost-embarrassed league. Like having its privacy credentials boosted is not a great feat in itself, Twitter is forging ahead in building user engagement and curating its service in a manner that is beneficial to brands, advertisers and users.
A couple of advertising features launched recently in the Middle East by Twitter are particularly sleek and have caught my attention.
1. Promoted Tweets
Now, that is one clever way of making money for Twitter and for brands to promote their cause/campaign/voice. The fact that promoted tweets reach you via your timeline, thereby not sullying the user-interface in any way is great. So just as you are casually skimming through your timeline, there right in the middle is an ‘ad tweet’ tailored for you.
2. Promoted Accounts
If you want your brand’s twitter page to reach your target audience, then hail Promoted Accounts. After going through the ‘follows’ list of users, the twitter algorithm will draw out individuals that are more likely to follow your brand because they follow your competition or similar brands. The Promoted Accounts features on the ‘Who To Follow’ widget on the left side of the Twitter page. Again, neat and subtle.
3. Promoted Trends
For those advertisers that do not want to manually get their #hashtag or brand message to trend on twitter, Promoted Trends make for great advertising sense. Get your trend to promote on twitter and users can interact and participate in the hashtag/trend just as they normally would with with any other hashtag.
The reason I particularly like the ‘Promoted’ advertising series and opportunities initiated by Twitter is because it is smart, well thought of and executed and it fits very well with the basic offerings of Twitter. A money-making mechanism that stays true to the brands core offering is indeed ingenuous. What do you think?