There have been many rumors about how Twitter would monetize itself and all roads led to advertisements. Simple enough, but when you throw ads in a Twitter conversation you tend to get mixed reactions from the public. Twitter serves as a conversation platform first and foremost. Some think that ads will disrupt real engagement, the type that has made Twitter what it is today. Others feel that Twitter needs to just find a way to make some money and stay in the game. What did Twitter think? Promoted Trends for ads!

This could very well be part of the Promoted Tweets platform that Twitter discussed at the CHIRP conference back in April. Originally it was announced specifically for tweets, for example:

Now you will start to see Promoted Trends! At the very bottom of the 1st image you can see that it says: Toy Story 3 (Promoted). This is the first Promoted Trend and purchased by Disney/Pixar for an undisclosed amount so far. The deal includes placement in Twitter Trends, and also a top tweet in the Promoting Trend. No word yet on if Promoted Trends will rise and fall in the mix of other trending topics.

Concerns

I have two questions for you:

• Will this affect the quality of your Twitter experience?
• Will this affect the quality of Twitter?

It won’t for me as I don’t pay much attention to Twitter Trends these days. However I do think it will affect the quality of Twitter. Engagement and conversations within Promoted Trends might seem….fake. I love that Twitter users will still have control of the conversation within each trends. Time will tell, and don’t forget to do the same in the comments.

Stay tuned for more as I have a feeling that Twitter Annotations will be coming shortly.