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Twitter’s Promoted Tweets hit the Main Stream

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Hillary Brown — No Comments ↓

Yesterday Twitter announced that they’ll be rolling out Promoted Tweets in your main Twitter timeline. By definition, Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets paid for by advertisers in order to reach a wide group of users or spark engagement from their existing followers. Per the post on Twitter’s blog, the promoted ads are a new way to ensure that users can easily access the most important Tweets from the organizations they follow directly.

The Promoted Tweets will only appear in your timeline if you’re already following the account that has paid for the placement. According to Twitter, the Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet and will appear in your timeline just once. The ads will clearly be marked as “Promoted” with an orange arrow icon below the tweet (the same way Promoted Trends and Promoted Tweets are currently displayed on the sidebar or in search). You can also easily dismiss or remove Promoted Tweets from your timeline with a single click.

Where will Promoted Tweets be displayed?
At the top of relevant search results pages on twitter.com.

In your main timeline if you follow the Advertiser.

In Related Tweets shown on the Details pane.

In the search results for a Promoted Trend.

In third-party apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck.
Twitter is also currently testing syndication of Promoted Products within HootSuite and TweetDeck. Promoted Tweets could appear in searches and user timelines in both of these third party applications.

Twitter will be testing and rolling out Promoted Tweets over the next several weeks with a select group of partners, including Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO,JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, Summit Entertainment’s “50/50”, TNT and Virgin America and a handful of non-profit organizations, including charity: water, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Room to Read, The American Red Cross and Water.org.

So, how are Promoted Tweets different from other online ads? Twitter’s take is that since all Promoted Tweets start out as regular Tweets, they are an organic part of Twitter, which is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. What are your thoughts on Promoted Tweets? Leave us a comment below!

Tags: monetization, online advertising, Promoted Tweets, Sponsored Tweets, Twitter
Posted in Blog, Digital Media, Social Media, Social Networks

Google’s social network finally revealed: The Google+ Project

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Nathan T. Wright — No Comments ↓

Yesterday Google launched their much-rumored push into the social networking space: The Google+ Project. I was interviewed by ABC5‘s Katie Eastman (video embed below) about the new network and how it stacks up to the main competition – Facebook.

Here are a couple of quick takeaways and initial reactions to Google+:

No friend requests. Unlike Facebook, Google+ doesn’t require mutual friendship acceptance. Users can subscribe to each other’s updates without defining one another as a friend (similar to Twitter), thereby removing some of the initial social navigation barriers, drama and decision-making. Note: Google+ users still have complete control over how their profiles appear, down to specific individuals.

Small groups. Google+ has baked a feature called Huddle into the network, which lets you create small groups of colleagues or friends to interact with. We’re seeing an explosion of group messaging apps right now, and Facebook’s recent acquisition of Beluga proves that the major players want to have a presence in that space. Beluga is something we find quite useful here at Lava Row (we have a Beluga “pod” for our work group and one with a client team). Facebook has not yet integrated Beluga into it’s standard messaging system, so it appears that Google has beat them to it with Huddle – at least in terms of layering it on top of existing products.

Where will the users come from? The biggest challenge is 750 million+ active Facebook users that “live” in that ecosystem every day. Google will need to focus on user overlap (similar to the symbiotic relationship between Twitter and Facebook) because there’s no way to shift that many people overnight. Integrating Google+ with popular, existing products such as Gmail will also be key.

So what are your thoughts on Google+? The company has been stumbled of late with their Buzz and Wave products, but they’ve been quietly succeeding outside of North America with Orkut. Please leave your comments below.

The Launch of Google+ from Katie Eastman on Vimeo.

ABOVE: Video of the ABC5 interview with Nathan T. Wright. Watch for the Shane Reiser man-hug at the end!

Tags: ABC5, Beluga, Buzz, Facebook, Gmail, Google, Google Plus Project, Huddle, Katie Eastman, Orkut, Shane Reiser, Twitter, Wave
Posted in Blog, Des Moines, Digital Media, Social Media, Social Networks, Video

Five apps to watch at SXSW 2011

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Nathan T. Wright — 1 Comment ↓

The South by Southwest Interactive festival has consistently been a proving ground for launching new social networks (most famously, Twitter in 2007 and foursquare in 2009). Each year, pundits and conference-goers try to predict what the next breakout hit will be.

I’m not smart enough to figure that out, but I have noticed a common theme: These networks helped you figure out what parties and panels your friends were at. This is how Twitter was first used in March 2007 via the #SXSW hashtag, and foursquare gave us “trending locations” all around Austin in 2009.

So this year I’m keeping my eye on a couple of apps that center around group chat, proximity-based chat, and location-based heat mapping. Here they are!

Ask Around
This comes from (surprisingly) Ask.com and I’ve been playing with it here in Des Moines for a few days now. Essentially, it’s a proximity-based chat room that lets you adjust the mile radius around you – allowing you to chat with people within ten miles or less than a mile. Facebook integration is fast and seamless. Should be fun in packed venues down in Austin.

Yobongo
This app is similar to Ask Around (and officially launched on the exact same day), except that it’s taking a foursquare-esque approach to city rollout. Yobongo is starting with San Francisco, Austin, New York and Long Beach (for TED).

Beluga
Beluga is a group messaging app that lets you share messages and media (photos, video, etc.) with groups of friends. Think of it as really powerful, fast and robust text messaging platform that completely bypasses SMS and mobile carriers. And, oh yeah, Beluga was just acquired by Facebook – which fits with the social networking giant’s plans for simplifying messaging across email, text and Facebook messages.

Localmind
Here’s another proximity-based chat application, except that Localmind is positioned more around knowledge share and local expertise. It lets you ask questions of people checked-in to specific locations, ie. “What’s the wait like for tables?”

Domo
Domo wants you to be able to connect with strangers on Facebook at parties, events and on campus, focused around likes, interests, and hobbies. (All pulled and aggregated from your Facebook profile once you sync it up.)

I’ll definitely be experimenting with all of these at SXSW, and it will be interesting to watch which ones (if any) break away from the pack. Are there any new apps or social networks that you’re excited to try out at the festival?

And let’s not forget, the old school handshakes, hugs and hellos still work, too!

Photo credit: johanl on flickr.

Tags: applications, apps, Ask Around, Austin Texas, Beluga, Domo, Foursquare, group messaging, Localmind, South by Southwest, SXSW, SXSW Interactive, SXSWi, Twitter, Yobongo
Posted in Blog, Conferences, Digital Media, Events, Mobile, Social Media, Social Networks

Journalism 2.0: Social Media Ethics

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Nathan T. Wright — 6 Comments ↓

This month I gave a talk called Journalism 2.0: Social Media Ethics at both the Iowa Newspaper Association and Wisconsin Newspaper Association conventions. (BTW, it was great to fly in to Green Bay Packer country only days after their Super Bowl win.)

The purpose of this talk was to help journalists better understand the following:

How to craft social media policy for their employees and teams.
How to balance their personal and professional social network identities.
How to use social media as a research tool.
How to maintain ethics and integrity while playing in the new media sandbox.

The latter point really sparked some debate up in Wisconsin, as real-time journalism was called into question – specifically NPR Senior Strategist Andy Carvin‘s curation and re-tweeting of #Egypt and #Jan25 Twitter posts. One audience member suggested that this was, in fact, not journalism. A paraphrased quote: “Journalists don’t ask the public is this happening? It’s up to us to report that.” Others in the room were vocal about the fact that Andy was simply doing his duty and providing a filter to all the noise.

Related to all of this is the “Line of Verification” concept created by Matthew Eltringham of the BBC, which I referenced in the presentation. Essentially, Matthew states that in the past, there was The Light Side (stuff that can be verified) and The Dark Side (stuff that can’t be verified and thus can’t be published). He argues that digital and social media networks have muddied up The Dark Side, and that some journalists need to start providing a filter for that uncharted area – which is what Andy Carvin is attempting to do on Twitter.

So what do you think? Can journalists play around on The Dark Side and still maintain their ethics, integrity and duty to the public? Is this a case of applying the rules of a traditional medium to a new one? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Embedded below via Slideshare is my original presentation deck. I also wanted to quickly thank Twitter pal Bonnie Boglioli Randall for originally pointing me to Matthew Eltringham’s post.

Image credit: pagedooley via flickr.

Tags: Andy Carvin, BBC, Bonnie Boglioli Randall, Iowa Newspaper Association, Journalism, Line of Verification, Matthew Eltringham, NPR, real-time journalism, social media ethics, Twitter, Wisconsin Newspaper Association
Posted in Blog, Conferences, Digital Media, Presentations, Social Media, Social Networks

Blog Archives

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets hit the Main Stream

Google’s social network finally revealed: The Google+ Project

Five apps to watch at SXSW 2011

Journalism 2.0: Social Media Ethics

A quick social networking lesson from a 14-year-old