Best Buy is one of the first companies that will advertise through Twitter's new platform, "promoted tweets."
Richfield-based electronics retailer Best Buy, Company, Inc., will be among the first companies to advertise through a new advertising platform called "promoted tweets," Twitter, Inc., announced Tuesday.
San Fransisco-based Twitter—a social networking Web site that previously has resisted advertising programs—said in a blog post that promoted tweets are “ordinary tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users.”
Tweets are brief messages—limited to 140 characters—that are posted and published online in real time. Users can “follow” other members, which allows them to view the tweets of others.
Promoted tweets will be “clearly labeled” when users are viewing them, so that users know when an advertiser has paid for the service, Twitter says. Like regular tweets, the promoted messages will allow users to reply, retweet, and label as a favorite.
“We'll attempt to measure whether the tweets resonate with users and stop showing promoted tweets that don't resonate,” Twitter said.
In addition to Best Buy, the following companies will be among the first to advertise via promoted tweets: Red Bull, Bravo, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America.
Twitter was launched in 2006. According to digital marketing analyst ComScore, Inc., twitter.com had 22.3 million unique visitors in March. AdAge reports that Twitter has raised $160 million in funding from venture-capital firms—including Menlo Park, California-based Benchmark Capital and Union Square Ventures of New York.
Best Buy is Minnesota’s third-largest company based on revenue, which totaled $45 billion in fiscal year 2009.
—Jake Anderson
(janderson@tcbmag.com)