Twitter, the service for online messages that are limited to 140 characters, has not had a clear plan for gaining revenue up until now, despite attracting tens of millions of users who post 50 million messages every day.

But yesterday the company announced “Promoted Tweets”, which are basically adverts. Initially they will be on search results, so that the first result displayed for each search may be an advert. Adverts will start out as normal Tweets posted by the advertiser and when they appear in other people’s search results they will be labelled “Promoted by…” so you will be able to identify them.

Depending on the initial success of this initiative, Twitter has plans to put Promoted Tweets in other places, such as on websites related to Twitter and even to the Tweet stream of individual users. Full details of Promoted Tweets can be found in the Twitter blog here .

Twitter has proved itself to be a vital source of breaking news (for example, during the Iranian election demonstrations or after the earthquake in Haiti) and there is now even a website dedicated to the best tools for using Twitter in journalism and media. So Promoted Tweets represent an interesting new opportunity for factual broadcasters and programme makers. It allows them to reach an audience that is interested in current events and active in reporting.

But the use of Promoted Tweets has to be handled carefully since their announcement has not been well received by Twitter users. TechCrunch report that 71% are against their introduction. Twitter hopes they will come to accept them and is stressing that they will only allow Promoted Tweets that “resonate” with the users; the company explains this as meaning that they will verify that Promoted Tweets are relevant to users and that if users are not interested in particular ones and do not click on them, then Twitter will stop showing them. However, it is not clear exactly how this procedure will work.

Broadcasters are well placed to offer Promoted Tweets that do “resonate” since they can address an audience interested in news. They can use them both to promote existing content and to help create new content. Examples might be:
– Promoting current affairs programmes to those searching for topics related to the subject
– Researching stories with Promoted Tweets asking for input from those with experience of particular subjects (and with location now being added to Tweets, the research will be able to focused on particular geographic areas)
– Encouraging those with breaking news to submit stories to your news service

Promoted Tweets promise to help in creating and promoting programmes. It is the sort of innovative tool we are looking for in the “Most Creative Marketing Strategy” award at the 2010 AIBs.