Twitter announced through its blog that they will unveil a new ad service Promoted Tweets.
with a few ad partners; Best Buy,
Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America.
Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and
organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users.
called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results page. They will
attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop
showing Promoted Tweets that don't resonate.
Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as "promoted" when an
advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist
as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those
who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the
functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and
favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search
results page.
At first there will be test phase they plan to allow
Promoted Tweets
to be shown by Twitter clients and other ecosystem partners and to
expand beyond Twitter search, including displaying relevant Promoted
Tweets in your timelines.
Twitter has been operating without advertising since its inception in 2006. This is its first attempt at monetizing the ubiquitous platform.