Twitter’s promoted ads are ads that show up on our newsfeed and look like all the other tweets that we see, except they have a little arrow and a designation that it is “promoted”. Though many of us dislike the tiny ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen when we are playing games on or using apps other than Twitter, the Twitter “promoted” ads seem more natural as they blend directly into your newsfeed. They are easy to read, simple, and seemingly effective. Instead of having a company’s own app to market itself, such as the reading suggests, buying “promoted” ad space on Twitter may be the best up and coming way to advertise your business. The benefits would be that you do not need to pay a developer to start your own app, you just need to sign up for Twitter and pay for your tweets to be promoted. Also, people may lean more towards the more naturalized, simple ads that happen to appear on their newsfeed while they are enjoying reading their friends tweets, creating a positive experience. Promotion of your business can be done in three different ways on Twitter, with various costs. You could either pay to have a promoted account, where people will see the suggested follow of your business, or you could have a promoted tweet, where people would see the tweet on their newsfeed and your tweet or offer would be directly advertised to them, or you could pay to have a promoted trend, where a specific hashtag relating to your business is available for all to see trending, therefore creating more tweets about the business. These different platforms for advertising on Twitter are helpful to businesses who want to spread more information about their offerings, but also want to avoid being annoying with small, cramped ads on other apps. There is also a tool where the business can follow how much their ads are generating business, which is helpful to track exactly how much return on investment you are receiving for advertising on Twitter.
Just recently, Twitter has come out with a “buy” button that allows users to buy goods from promoted ads on Twitter. This is another step that is enhancing advertising on this social media platform. Right now, for example, you could see a promoted tweet for your favorite band who happens to be selling their band T-shirt on Twitter. Using the “buy” button, you would go into Twitter and buy the shirt directly off the Twitter app. The video in this link explains this in better detail.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101976680
With the possibility of Twitter being a more naturalized, simple way of advertising your business, the guarantee of people seeing your ads by having them be promoted, and the recent ease of buying products directly through the app, Twitter has much potential to be a huge marketplace in the future. I believe that I would buy products through Twitter that were advertised to me seeing that the process is very easy and it is enjoyable to scroll through trends and ads while also seeing my friend’s tweets. Do you think that you would purchase goods using Twitter? Do you believe that the Twitter promoted ads would be a better way of promoting your business, rather than creating your own app that people have to download separately? I believe that in the next few years, if Twitter can successfully introduce and mainstream the “buy” button, advertisers will see a lot of success and will prefer using this method to others. These features are a great first step for Twitter into entering the E-market world.
Here is a poll to see what you and others think about purchasing items using Twitter:
References:
http://www.business2community.com/twitter/use-sponsored-twitter-ads-grow-business-0998047
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/twitter-testing-buy-button-promoted-tweets-article-1.1932316
https://blog.twitter.com/2012/new-targeting-adds-greater-relevance-to-your-promoted-tweets
Analytics tool for analyzing how your tweets are doing when they are promoted:
https://business.twitter.com/products/analytics
I would not purchase anything via Twitter just because I do not associate the platform with a shopping experience. I would much rather go to a specific, ‘professional’, online store where I feel more secure to buy a product, rather than purchasing from a random ad on Twitter. It also may have to do with the fact that every time I am on Twitter, is mainly to relax, and scroll through the tweets; not necessarily do I want to be worrying if the ad may be fake or unreliable.
The options you name for advertising on Twitter sound very similar to the Facebook advertising possibilities. The promoted ads work exactly the same on both platforms. Thus, I do not doubt the fact that this kind of advertising will be a great success. Additionally, the fact that the ad simply appears as you scroll down your newsfeed is very popular with Twitter and Facebook users. As you point out, the ads do not disturb the online experience and in my opinion, only enhance it. The popularity of online shopping and the popularity of social media platforms can only indicate that combining these two is the only way to go. The social features compliment the shopping experience and vice versa.
However, as Weinberg and Pehlivan (2011) explain, the half-time life of Twitter is very short. The microblog creates brand awareness and sends short, strong messages, but it allows only brief engagement and short conversation (Weinberg and Pehlivan, 2011). Although Facebook does not have a long half-time life of information, it does influence and track the beliefs and needs of its users and can therefore place ads that are more personalized (Weinberg and Pehlivan, 2011). Therefore, the advertising method with the ‘buy’ option on the newsfeed will probably be less successful on Twitter than it will be on Facebook or other social networks and communities.
Personally, I would buy a product on Twitter, but I’d rather go shopping on Facebook.