The release of sponsored Tweets has not taken off as well as first hoped, reports suggest
Around 140 companies have advertised on the platform ‘in the year since it first opened its UK office’ but, compared to the reported 10 million active users of the service, this is a low return, according to marketingweek.com.
Arsenal Football Club, for example, hasn’t paid a penny to advertise on Twitter; preferring to utilise the free aspects of the service to report to its 1.5 million users.
Charles Allen, the club’s marketing director, believes that too many sponsor opportunities could ‘kill’ the service. Allen said: “Twitter would do better to seek ways to monetise its 10 million UK subscribers in other ways – premium services, greater customisation and so on.
“Recognising the power that Twitter has as a PR vehicle could be the big opportunity, and linking brands with the right endorses and helping manage the feed in an authentic way is key,” he added, which could interest social media marketing professionals looking to get started with the platform.
Furthermore, Adobe’s social media strategist, Marc Blinder, believes that Twitter ads have been ‘under bought’ due to the platform not being opened up to developers.
Their comments coincide with a new report cited by mashable.com, which suggests that US social ad spend could reach $9.8 billion (£6.2 billion) by 2016.
