Twitter has decided to start publishing promoted tweets in the timeline of it's users within the next 8 weeks, according to an article on Mashable.
I'm not against advertising and do realize that nothing is free. To be able to use twitter as a free service they need to get their money from somewhere else, primarely advertising. What I object to is the way they're going to do it, if this is correct.
According to the article twitter will place promoted tweets within our stream and not only that, they will make it stick so we will keep seeing it. Now let's compare that to two of the most successful online advertisers out their on the market, Google and Facebook.
Google has built their success on delivering exactly what people are after - without any advertising in it's content. They surely do have advertising on the search results, but they are do they side or in a frame at the top, not like the natural results. Same goes for Gmail. Surely Google could send us all promoted emails and make the stick so we would keep seeing them at the top of our inbox. But they don't. Why? It's SPAM! And part of the success of Gmail is keeping that spam away, something twitter has not been good enough at.
Facebook has two main options for marketers. One is buying ads on the side which actually does give some good results if you're targeted and the other one is creating a page where people can opt to see your message in their stream. They do however NOT offer the option of buying status updates in people streams that stick, because that would be considered SPAM!
I'm amazed that a brilliant company like twitter can't come up with a better plan then spamming their user base, their most valuable asset. I'm afraid their phenomenal success in raising funds from investors is now turning against them in the form of an unrealistic demand of return on investment. Guttering your goose will bring you limited amount of eggs.
What would be a better idea?
As a twitter addict, I want twitter to continue with the same good service, but I have zero tolerance for spamming, which I feel twitter is about to offer me with those promoted tweets. So what would be a better idea? How could twitter make money with out spamming the users?
Selling access to information such as trends, searches etc, which can be very valuable for market research?
Allowing ads on the site instead of promoted tweets?
Just continuing with promoted trends?
Selling gold accounts? (and what should that include then?)
I'd love to hear your what you feel about promoted tweets and your ideas about how twitter could earn some money.
Hjörtur
@hjortur on twitter
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