Twitter’s Long-Awaited Self-Serve Ad Platform Finally Sees The Light Of Day

Twitter has been around for over five years now. Since its launch in 2006, social network/social media experts have been predicting that Twitter is the ‘ next-big-thing ’. But sadly, either because of the Facebook onslaught or because of mismanagement, Twitter has not really realized its full potential. One of the main concerns has been Twitter’s monetization process. Unlike Facebook, Twitter does not seem to be including much advertisement on the site. Can Twitter really be monetized? What are the other avenues of commercial usage of the platform? In April 2010, Twitter announced that they are planning to launch an advertising platform which would allow just about anyone to take advantage of Promoted Products . Finally, Twitter has made the self-serve advertising platform live. Currently, only a select group of advertisers will have access to this platform and depending on its performance and feedback the platform will be opened up to the public. Twitter’s approach to advertising has always been ‘ slow and steady ’. In May 2009, Biz Stone (co-founder and creative director of Twitter), has said, “ …traditional web banner advertising isn’t interesting to us. But, we think there are interesting opportunities related to commercial usage ”. April 2010 was also when Promoted Tweets were introduced on the microblogging site for the first time. This was quickly followed up in June 2010 with the introduction of Promoted Trends, with Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3 being the first trend to be promoted. Twitter did not stop here and in October 2010 they came up with Promoted Accounts, which basically allowed brands and individuals to pay to be featured under the “Suggested for You” section . There have been a couple of cases of high-profile celebrities becoming a part of sponsored tweets. Charlie Sheen is first person who comes into mind. He, not only set the Guinness World Record for the “Fastest Time to Reach 1 million Followers”, but he also became one of most well-known personalities to promote a business through sponsored tweets. UTV has also entered the sponsored tweets arena. So we can soon expect Indian celebrities to start tweeting on behalf of brands. 2011 has comparatively been a good year for Twitter in terms of advertising. It has seen a sharp jump in the number of actual advertisers interested in the platform. This includes some Indian brands as well. Also its revenue from advertising has almost tripled in comparison to 2010 . According to eMarketer, Twitter earned around $45 million from advertising in 2010 and in 2011 this figure is predicted to be close to $150 million . Similar jumps in ad revenue are projected for the next couple of years. Do you think Twitter can become an equally important advertising platform as Facebook? Do you follow Promoted Tweets or sponsored tweets?

[via WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India]