CDPR 108 - Module 2 - Promoted Tweets, Accounts, and Trends

 Twitter social networking and microblogging service launched publicly on July 15, 2006.¹ Four years later, on April 13, 2010 Biz Stone, one of the founders, announced the launch of Promoted Tweets, stating  “Over the years, we've resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model because we wanted to optimize for value before profit. The open exchange of information creates opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses alike. We recognized value in this exchange and planned to amplify it in a meaningful and relevant manner.”... “Stubborn insistence on a slow and thoughtful approach to monetization—one which puts users first, amplifies existing value, and generates profit...”.²  In short – they needed to reach a certain level of critical mass and credibility before plunging into “monetization” – exploiting their massive network for profit. Hence, the beginning of Twitter’s ‘Promoted’ advertising opportunities, including Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Trends!

Promoted Tweets appear at the top of user’s Twitter feed and/or search results and represent messages from organizations that the user doesn’t necessarily  follow.  Twitter assesses all of the organization’s Tweets, identifies the most popular and then ‘promotes’ that tweet to a specified targeted public, which may include the organization’s followers and/or users similar to their followers, within a specified geographic area.³ In return for promoting their Tweet, the organization agrees to pay Twitter on  a ‘Cost Per Engagement’ (CPE) basis – a set fee for each re-tweet, click, favourite or reply. The CPE rates have been reported to be between $0.75 - $2.50, with a minimum 3-month commitment of $15,000 - $25,000.⁴

Promoted Accounts appear at the top of selected user’s  (identified by Twitter as similar to the organization’s followers) ‘Who to Follow’ list.  The organization pays based on a ‘Cost Per Follower’ rate – reportedly $2.50 - $4.00, again with a minimum 3-month commitment of $15,000 - $25,000.⁴

Promoted Trends appear at the top of all user’s Trending list. The cost for this premium placement has been reported to be as much as $120,000 per day.⁵

In my opinion, Twitter.com Targeting Options -- Promoted Tweets, Trends, and Accounts, represent substantial potential value for public relations practitioners.

Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets, allow organizations to pay only for actual responses. In the case of Promoted Accounts, the one-time CPF ($2.50 - $4.00) rate allows organizations gain on-going access to their target audience.  Promoted Tweets offer the opportunity to substantially amplify the message – the one-time cost per engagement may result in additional followers as well as multiple incremental engagements (my understanding is that the organization pays for the initial engagement, but not follow-up engagement i.e., if a user Retweets via the promoted Tweet, the organization would pay the fee, but any following engagement by the user’s followers would not result in additional payment ). It should also be noted that with Twitter’s targeting, users are receiving messages that are highly relevant to the user.

Additionally of note are user’s attitudes towards promoted tweets. As of August 2011, a substantial percentage of users were positively inclined to interact with Promoted Tweets.⁶ Attitudes towards Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts could potentially be extrapolated.

Twitter Trends, while it comes with a very high daily cost of as much as $120,000, the reach is substantial enough to warrant the cost. As of February 2012, some 15% of online adults use Twitter, and 8% do so on a typical day.⁷ $120,000 to have millions of your public not only seeing your message, but engaging and interacting with it, seems like relatively good value versus the cost of say, a Superbowl TV ad?

It should be noted that the minimum investment required by all three promoted products, necessitates a solid, long-term social media strategy to ensure positive ROI.

It should also be noted that, like most communication tactics, the success is dependent not just on the distribution channel, but the content.  The success of the Virgin America Twitter campaign is an excellent example.⁸

https://business.twitter.com/optimize/case-studies/virginamerica/

The Virgin Airlines campaign represents a perfect fit for Twitter– a company with a substantial twitter presence, coupled with a time sensitive, value-added offer. Virgin used Promoted Trends and Promoted Tweets to launch a one-day sale, with a donation going to cancer charity for each booking. The campaign resulted in one of Virgin’s top five sale days ever, a 25% increase in sign-ups for their loyalty program, and $50,000 raised (the stated maximum) for cancer.


References:

1.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter 2.      http://blog.twitter.com/2010/04/hello- world.html 3.      https://business.twitter.com/en/smallbiz/ 4.      http://mashable.com/2011/12/06/cost-of-twitter-follower/5.      http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/twitter-promoted-trends-cost-120-000-day-1227866.      http://raventools.com/blog/advertising-on-twitter-is-it-right-for-your-brand/7.      http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Twitter-Use-2012.aspx