Ads Come to Twitter (Updated)
The day we all knew was coming has arrived. Twitter just added a subtle phrase to the right-hand side of every user's home page. That text? Sponsored definition. What that tells us is that Twitter has decided to start charging for companies to promote in the definition area that they added just a few weeks ago. The change was first noticed by Nimish Adani (Twitter) of workosaur.com.
We have written about Twitter courting revenue models like ExecTweets and suggested friends. However, it has kept its real monetization plans under wraps, content to move slowly, until now. It looks like the first applications to be highlighted as paying sponsors are Twitterrific, Tweetdeck and Stocktwits. We haven't seen any new changes to the business side of Twitter to indicate how advertisers would go about promoting their product on the site yet, but we're sure it is just a matter of time.
Update: It looks like we jumped the gun a bit: the official Twitter account just sent this tweet: "None of the promos currently running in the sidebar are sponsored (it just says that because of a bug that's being fixed right now)."
You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Rick Turoczy, Sean Ammirati, Lidija Davis and Phil Glockner.
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Anyone aware of how to tap into this advertising platform?
More importantly, will the ads find their ways into standalone Twitter clients?
Good news. This means they are generating revenue, which means they may be here for good.
@Juha - don't think so. Twitter will has to be really careful not to offend users with ads in streams.
It's interesting to see this finally pop up, as I imagined it would when it first appeared in the sidebar.
However, Twitter is saying that none of the definitions currently running are paid sponsorships. There's a bug right now that is displaying the text where it isn't supposed to.
http://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1529726961
Mac, I don't have the link at hand, but someone from Twitter staff said these ads are not being paid for yet, they are just applications that they like and decided to promote because they add value to the Twitter community.
If this evolves into an ad platform anyone can use, it will be an interesting and non-intrusive way of monetizing.
It could have been much worse: imagine Twitter adding ads as messages into the timeline, providing businesses with the capability to push tweets to users who have not subscribed to them, terrible!
And now that I think about it... the idea scares me, they can always change their mind and do it :s
Already amended to the RWW post, this note from Twitter: "None of the promos currently running in the sidebar are sponsored (it just says that because of a bug that's being fixed right now)." -- Hmm. A "bug," huh? ;-)
Posted by: Chris Baskind
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April 15, 2009 6:07 PM
I'm not seeing the sponsored part, despite having the definitions on my profile. Then again, I don't get trends and search, either. They must be doing some serious A/B testing.
I don't see the sponsored tag on my Twitter profile. At the moment, just:
Stock Twits
n. an investment idea and information service.
"Sponsored definition" doesn't appear as a random bug. If not intentional, it's clearly a concept that's being contemplated.
Like John Dodge I haven't been seeing these sponsored tag either. Anyway this is expected, only sooner than I thought lol.
Great news. So Twitter finally started looking at ways to generate money. I dont see this yet on my Twitter. May be a bug but definitely its going to come out one day.
Folks, soon after I finished updating this post with the tweet the official Twitter account, the main page for everyone reverted back to what they had before.
I still think that the most important thing isn't where the advertising goes on the page, but how they're going to cope with having built an API where everyone can build standalone twitter clients.
Surely it makes more sense to allow the client builders to build a revenue on top of their software and take an (albeit large) percentage?
I love how people are generally cheering Twitter on about advertising and generating revenue, lol. That's never happened on the web before that I can remember!
"C'mon guys, you can do it! Just put a tiny ad up and make us all feel better!"
Never before have I seen someone dither with even the simplest form of revenue generation when people are ready to heap mounds of cash on them!
There is no doubt a social media revolution underway (hint: Twitter). I have found that there are many still who have no idea what Twitter is, how to tweet, or what it does. That is, what benefit does tweeting bring? Investing time in learning all about Twitter will bring plenty of benefits; especially for those interested in using Twitter as a vehicle for making money. Your readers might be interested in The Twitter Video Tutorial series found on my blog at http://www.digitaldrake.com/welcome-to-my-twitter/
A floodgate is about to open wide.
I'll be interested how much it costs to advertise here (I assume some kind of bid-per-click... I'd love to see some user geo and tag focusing too.
If it's a reasonable price, I'll almost certainly use it to promote http://woo.sh when it's finished :)
Thanks Phil good information i will follow it
i haven't notice that it is an advertisement... I wonder what are the benefits of these sponsor definitions to the members of twitter...