Twitter has announced that it plans to offer advertisers the chance to put paid-for ad messages into twitter feeds. To start with, the "promoted tweets" will only be visible when users search for similar products or services on the Twitter site, but eventually the site plans to expand the service to allow ads deemed relevant to users to appear in their Twitter feed.
Initial reaction among Twitter users has been mostly negative.
The New York Times is trying a new approach to the problem of funding local news operations: it has signed a deal with news aggregator Fwix that will allow it to supplement its regular content with Fwix's blogging/news mix, including links from 160 cities in six different countries.
Micro-blogging site Twitter is said to be working on a model that would enable it to post adverts tied to searches, as it looks at ways to take advantage of its growth and bring in money from advertising. Users now send 50 million tweets every day, up from just 5,000 a day in 2007.
Microblogging site Twitter, which - as we reported here - is to allow advertising and focus on revenue generation this year, is reported to be in the process of negotiating a new round of funding that could see its valuation hit US$1bn. Insight Venture Partners is thought to be the leading investor in the new US$50m funding round.
Twitter, which has 45 million users, has yet to find a business model to bring in consistent revenues, and it has now opened the door for advertisers to target its users for the first time.
The website has changed it terms of service, which now say:
Services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the content or information on the services, queries made through services, or other information.,
Earlier this year, Biz Stone, one of Twitter's founders, said that the company would focus on generating revenue in 2009.
The US Federal Trade Commission is currently reviewing its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials in the light of recent changes in the ad market driven by digital developments. The guidelines have not been updated since 1980.
There are concerns that the impact on viral campaigns could be considerable. Specifically, the FTC is considering holding companies legally liable for comments made by bloggers about their products, and holding both the companies and the bloggers responsible for the truthfulness thereof. Spending on social media marketing reached US$1.35 billion in 2007 and is expected to be nearly triple that figure by 2011, according to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Richard O'Brien of the AAAA has written to the FTC to plead that
"regulating these developing media too soon may have a chilling effect on blogs and other forms of viral marketing, as bloggers and other viral marketers will be discouraged from publishing content for fear of being held liable for any potentially misleading claim."
Blogs are becoming mainstream in the UK. The Telegraph reports that there are now nearly four million British bloggers, a fifth of whom update their blog every day.
Television networks in the US are currently unveiling their schedules for autumn, and negotiating 'upfront' (advanced) bookings for the season. Zenith Media Services - one of our sister agencies in the US - is delving into the schedules and discussing the negotiations on its own blog right now. This is well worth a look even if you have no direct interest in US television, since many of these shows will be coming your way in the near future.
Recent posts look at: NBC's line-up - the first to be announced, Spanish-language programming and Comedies, drama and Oprah on ABC. There will be much more to come over the next week.
Last night the UK's Daily Telegraph launched My Telegraph, a service that allows readers to create their own blogs. As we discussed when we first mentioned the service, this is an attempt to turn its readers into a community of contributors. It won't hurt that it will also generate free content and traffic for the Telegraph's website.
This morning's contributions range from the grumpy , the Eurosceptic and the mundane to the philosophical. It will be interesting to see if the site develops its own tone as the contributors interact.
The UK's Daily Telegraph is often thought of as reactionary and resistant to change. Certainly it is conservative in outlook and is the only general UK national that still prints in broadsheet format. Yet it was the first UK newspaper to launch a website (in 1994) and is now planning to host blogs written by its readers.
My Telegraph allows any reader to create their own blog, store all the comments they make on other readers' blogs and save articles to read later. Version one of the site... will be ready to go live soon.
This moves beyond allowing readers to comment on articles, which is now commonplace: it is a bold attempt to turn the Telegraph's readers into a community of contributors.
Here's an image that shows how it will work. I note that the name of the dummy blogger is Bobby Chariot, which shows that someone at the Telegraph is an Alexei Sayle fan.
