Promoted tweets from advertisers will soon appear in users personal timelines depending on who they follow and what their interests are, giving advertisers unique segmentation possibilities. Until now, promoted tweets have only appeared in Twitter’s search function. The paid tweets from advertisers will be labeled as ‘Promoted’ to distinguish them from other normal ones. In short, this means people will start to see promoted tweets from brands they don’t follow.
The new promoted tweets have been around in other markets allowing brands to create more targeted advertising campaigns, promote user engagement and increase site traffic and conversions. Anecdotal reports suggest that they do work and that they haven’t been as annoying for users as many feared.
The American media specialist Lab 42 has done some research in their market. The numbers show that approximately 25% of people actually find the tweets relevant, 14% have retweeted a promoted tweet, 22% have received discounts, and 21% have learned about new brands through the promoted Tweets. Only 10% of people found promoted tweets in their feed to be irritating.
These numbers tell us that users can tolerate some advertising in their feed and some, at least, are willing to engage with the promoted Tweets. However, this is research from the US markets and it will be interesting to see if the UK users follow the same pattern of response and tolerance. What the research doesn’t say is whether promoted tweets had any impact on the amount of followers a brand has.
So, what can brands expect to pay for a bigger presence on Twitter? This has not been revealed yet, but according to rumours online it’s going to be expensive.
We will be expecting a great deal of criticism from users who do not want to see brands interfere with their site. As Twitter has always been careful not to overly commercialise its offerings, we can only hope they retain their user-centric stance as they continue to grow their revenue platform.
Victoria Nyberg