Twitter has been moving slowly-but-surely in to the ad business over the past year. It started with promoted topics, then promoted tweets and has started to creep in to user timelines and other places across the network.
Enter politics. Political ads have graced televisions, radios, and unsuspecting suburban yards for years. Whether it's for mayor, president, or county coroner, the messages are painted in to our brains for a good 5-6 months of every political season.
Throw in one part cheesy graphics, and two parts overly-expensive-bus-tour, and combine them all... the result is new political ads on Twitter. According to Politico, Twitter is looking at it as a new way to gain revenue. Next year's presidential campaigns alone are expected to cost in the ballpark of a billion dollars, with a large portion of that going to advertising. With TV, newspaper, and radio marketing slowly on their way out, the campaigns are turning toward social media.
How will this affect your timeline?
Luckily Twitter is committed to disclosure, with promoted tweets and trends receiving the familiar "promoted" check mark next to it. The social giant also ensures that these promoted political tweets will not be showing up in your timeline any time soon- they'll be limited to searches and trends only.
It only makes sense, especially as candidates try to reach the young voter. Obama uses social media in ways unseen before in 2008, and other candidates and parties have caught on to the strategy. Twitter has a surprisingly low number of ads for an $8 billion dollar company, so efficient ways to bring in revenue is important for survival. Political ads are a good move as long as they stay unobtrusive.
What do you think? Are you looking forward to politics joining Twitter?