Twitter is now following @money
It was a strangely circular 24 hours. Twitter announced a plan for paid placements alongside search results and Google unveiled a Twitter follower recommendation engine.
ClickZ listed and explained the details of Twitter's 'Promoted Tweets', a system that seems quite similar to Google AdWords - it even borrows a form of Quality Score aptly renamed 'Resonance'. Twitter provided its own FAQ for users. The program is currently limited to advertisers in the Starbucks category but Forrester's Josh Bernoff advised smaller interactive advertisers to take note. The search blog Traffick took an interesting look at the factors common to successful SEM programs and predicted good times ahead for Promoted Tweets. Looking from an agency perspective, Future Visions saw a lot to like but also some challenges for the (currently) CPM system. PR Squared saw a great new tool for reputation management. The downside view did come from the pragmatic wing of online marketing - affiliate marketing blogger Zac Johnson took the opportunity to remind readers about the frustration of marketing through paid Tweets for profit.
There was plenty of other news in addition to the Google follower finder. GigaOm summarized new programs in location based tagging (that set off a Foursquare killer meme), annotated Tweets and changes for developers.
Google also announced a program to permanently store Tweets but, to complete the circle, their credentials as archivists were promptly trumped. The Library of Congress announced that they were adding Tweets to their stacks. Hopefully, in the future, people will not be doomed to repeat the mistakes of history after reading what was said about Tiger Woods in 140 character increments.
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