Twitter’s new advertising model has been both highly anticipated and feared for years now. What would the company bring to market that would generate revenue but not disrupt the value of the communication medium? Well we now have their answer: Promoted Tweets. And while it doesn’t seem that tricky of a concept, Promoted Tweets is a well thought out ad model that, if executed as expected, will serve to increase the value of and expectations for advertising moving forward. Here’s why:
Promoted Tweets are promoted content, not promoted ads Ad tweets aren’t separate ad content, they are regular tweets that appear in an advertiser’s actual Twitter stream. That means they need to provided value to a brand’s regular followers, not just new recruits. If brands don’t respect that, they will lose the followers they’re recruiting by spamming them.
Promoted Tweets are promoted or demoted based on the value they deliver to consumers Twitter’s new “resonance” score judges Promoted Tweets based on how users interact with them. That means if PT’s are getting RT’d, favorited, clicked on, or @replied then the PT’s will stay highly visible. If users aren’t engaging, the Promoted Tweet will dissapear with the Normal tweet stream. The resonance score will force advertisers to really think about what content they pay to promote, and to provide real value, otherwise it will again be a waste of money.
Promoted Tweets are tied to intent not eyeballs Since at least Twitter’s first evolution of Promoted Tweets is tied to search, the ad content will only appear when a user is looking for related information. Between search inciting relevancy and the pressure as illustrated above on the ad content being highly valuable from to users / followers, I expect the Promoted Tweets to deliver a positive ad experience. One that, if done correctly, could change user expectations and demand for advertising content across the board.
Many marketers are very familiar with popular white label social networking provider Ning, and rightfully so. Ning has made it incredibly easy to build your own fully functioning social network in minutes for free. Since its inception Ning has been a popular recommendation to clients as a free & easy way to build a private community. However, this week Ning made the controversial announcement that it will soon be turning off their free offering. Existing accounts will eventually be required to transition to a paid offering. In preparation for this, we wanted to help lay out some options for brands. (more…)
Panelists: Deb Berman [JustMeans], Bonin Bough [PepsiCo & Pepsi Refresh Project], Virginia Miracle [Ogilvy PR], Chrysi Philalithes [(RED)]
As part of Social Media Week in New York City I attended a panel discussion on “Putting the Social in Corporate Social Responsibility”. The most significant take-away for me was that Corporate Social Responsibility needs to be more than a marketing tactic; rather consumers expect CSR to be fundamental in the culture of modern brands: (more…)
If there was any question before, last week’s Google announcement that content from your social graph would now be included in your search results is another big proof point that brands need to be thinking about social media as a major contributing factor in their search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Over the last few months Google has increasingly handed coveted “first page result” spots to social content. It started with their real-time integration of Twitter results, and now it’s with the open beta of their social search experiment.
Why is this critical for companies to recognize and incorporate in their SEO? Because your corporate website, no matter how well it’s ranked, is being quickly overshadowed by all of the social content g your brand. Now results are filled with a slew if blog posts, tweets as they happen, and the links a person’s friend shared about the brand on Facebook.
Don’t worry, though- brands don’t have to be left in the cold. They do need to start engaging consumers in social spaces, producing content of value, and making their content sharable. That way the valuable information is getting shared and enforced by advocates and being included by Google in the spaces reserved for the user’s social graph.
Over at the DraftFCBlog I have a new post up all about how to be a savvy marketer you need stop simply reading about new products & services like Twitter and Foursquare and you need to jump in and experience them for true insights:
It’s clear to everyone that old world disruption advertising models have a smaller role in the future of marketing. As advertisers we need to be able to know how to engage with our audiences in meaningful and valuable ways. The only way we can do this is if we invest real time in experiencing and learning the new media landscape. We need to stop asking what tweets are or why someone just became “mayor of the 33rd & 5th street Starbucks.” We need to sign up for these new and unusual (or possibly scary or stupid) products and services, or we’ll be left behind.
Read the post and let us know what you think. Are you jumping in?
When I jumped over to Digg this morning a new McDonalds campaign was being displayed displayed:
Check out this morning’s early risers:
Stories so fresh they’re not on the homepage yet
It’s nothing flashy, but it’s clever enough that it made me smile, and even made me consider going downstairs to get an Egg McMuffin. And really, that’s all it needed to do.
post-script: I do seem to have an infatuation with advertising on Digg lately- they just seem to be making real progress with campaigns that fit for their audience
I am a Senior Strategist at SS+K. I handle digital & social media strategy for a number of clients. I also keep a personal blog here. View Kevin Skobac's profile
Twitter’s new advertising model has been both highly anticipated and feared for years now. What would the company bring to market that would generate revenue but not disrupt the value of the communication medium? Well we now have their answer: Promoted Tweets. And while it doesn’t seem that tricky of a concept, Promoted Tweets is a well thought out ad model that, if executed as expected, will serve to increase the value of and expectations for advertising moving forward. Here’s why:
Many marketers are very familiar with popular white label social networking provider Ning, and rightfully so. Ning has made it incredibly easy to build your own fully functioning social network in minutes for free. Since its inception Ning has been a popular recommendation to clients as a free & easy way to build a private community. However, this week Ning made the controversial announcement that it will soon be 
View Kevin Skobac's profile