Twitter's First Advertiser
There’s been speculation for months about how Twitter plans to make money, while rumors swirl about potential buyers and the company’s pledge to remain independent. A program rolled out today called ExecTweets is sponsored by Microsoft and is an extremely cautious first step into using marketing or advertising on its service.
One of the fastest growing sites on the web, Twitter plans to promote the ExecTweet site on its main login page and in the box Twitter just started putting on profile pages (usually with a definition of a Twitter term). Mobile users of Twitter, which use apps like Twitterrific, Tweetie, and TwitterFon, likely won’t see the ads, but Twitter is likely testing the waters to see what its users will tolerate in terms of advertising on the site.
Interestingly, setting up the site ExecTweet did not require Twitter’s approval or participation. Twitter’s open API allows users to repurpose data from the site for their own Twitter apps, but Microsoft did launch the branding campaign with Twitter’s approval and participation (in terms of promotion of the site at Twitter.com).
Microsoft set up the deal via its Federated Media ad network/platform/agency, and Federated Media says it plans on launching similar programs on Twitter with other clients.
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