Earlier today several people noticed a “Promoted Trend” in trending topics on Twitter. For those who haven’t already seen it, here’s what it looks like:
It appears at the bottom of the trending list; and it’s there regardless of whether you’re looking at global or local trending topics. We’ve asked for comment from Twitter.
A Twitter spokesperson pointed me to the FAQs on Promoted Tweets, which say the following:
Like Trending Topics, Promoted Trends are already trending on Twitter but haven’t yet made their way into the Trending Topics list. Promoted Trends are clearly marked as “Promoted.” If a topic isn’t already being talked about on Twitter, it cannot be a Promoted Trend.
When you click through you go to the stream of tweets about Toy Story 3. The Promoted Tweet appears at the top of the page followed by others discussing the movie:
The ad seems to have been retweeted, probably because of its novelty, more than 100 times.
If you click on the “promoted by Disney-Pixar” yellow button it takes you to the Promoted Tweets FAQs. If you click on the Disneyticketstogether.com link it goes to the Facebook site where Disney is selling tickets to showings of Toy Story 3.
This is going to be a very effective social media promotion for Pixar — there will be lots of coverage and discussion — even though the film already has huge visibility and, dare I say it . . . “Buzz.”
For more about promoted tweets, see our past article, The Twitter Search Revolution: Popular & Promoted Tweets Mature The Service.
Related Topics: Top News | Twitter
Premium member since 01/2009
I noticed this yesterday, and thought perhaps I had just missed it. Will be interesting to watch as this component of Twitter develops.
The Twitter spokesperson can explain it till the cows come home, but my first instinct is to see it as an irrelevant text ad in a section that’s supposed to be about what users, not advertisers, have decided is popular. And I don’t think too many users are going to hear that explanation, or care if they do. I’ll be very surprised if this idea has legs.