Last week Twitter announced that it will start posting “Promoted Tweets”. These lightly veiled ads will be coming from big brands like Starbucks. Has Twitter finally found a way to make money?

Controlling the Spin

Prior to sponsored tweets it was difficult for brands to manage their message. If a tweeter bashed the company it was incumbent upon the brand to try and manage the response by tweeting links to positive reviews or try to address the issue over a live feed. The downside for the company is those tweets would get lost in about a minute.

In the near future it will be easier to manage the message and less fear of losing the response to a negative tweet in the barrage of thousands of other tweets in the stream.

Tread Lightly

I see where Twitter is going with this. Don’t get me wrong I know they have to make money but some users are already making a stink about this. First we had to deal with celebrities that were paid to tweet. Now the spirit of Twitter – the users creating dialogue, providing valuable information to the masses will now be tainted.

I for one want to see this monitored and policies updated as needed – as Twitter says it will do. If the users feel like they are getting bombarded with ads guess what will happen? You got it, they’ll find some way to push back.

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