• The program will be introduced in phases. As Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog points out, phase one will leverage Twitter’s most valuable asset – the data of its more than 20 million users, “Twitter’s real value lies in the aggregated information of its estimated 22.3 million users, surfaced by search, so it makes sense that the company would turn to this strength to make money.”
• In phase one “Promoted Tweets” will show up only for searches on Twitter itself. No Promoted Tweets on Twitter apps yet.
• If you perform a search on a particular term that is relevant to one of the companies paying for the Promoted Tweet service, like those Google Sponsored Links at the top of a Google search, a tweet from the paying company will be displayed at the top of the search page. The New York Times article “Twitter Unveils Plans to Draw Money From Ads” has a pretty fleshed out example of this using Starbucks,

Starbucks, for instance, often publishes Twitter posts about its promotions, like free pastries. But the messages quickly get lost in the thousands of posts from users who happen to mention meeting at Starbucks.

“When people are searching on Starbucks, what we really want to show them is that something is happening at Starbucks right now, and Promoted Tweets will give us a chance to do that,” said Chris Bruzzo, vice president of brand, content and online at Starbucks.

• In order for a Promoted Tweet to hold its ground at the top of the search page, it’s gotta resonate baby… people don’t click it, retweet it, engage with it… it’s outta there. And Twitter will be following the results in order to tweak the program… again like Google with its ever evolving, mysterious, and infamous algorithm.
• Twitter says these are not ads – “Since all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets, there is not a single ‘ad’ in our Promoted Tweets platform that isn’t already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. Promoted Tweets will also be timely. Like any other Tweet, the connection between you and a Promoted Tweet in real-time provides a powerful means of delivering information relevant to you at the moment.”
• First takers, or “partners”  include: Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America
• Next up?  According to the Times, “[Twitter] will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser.” This leaves me wondering if a post to Twitter about the overwhelming Houston pollen count induced allergies this season will elicit a Claritin tweet inserted into my stream. Twitter is the most vague about phase 2 stating, “Before we roll out more phases, we want to get a better understanding of the resonance of Promoted Tweets, user experience and advertiser value.”

So there it is folks… I reserve final judgment until I actually see it IRL… (Update: I couldn’t post to the blog fast enough and Mashable reports Promoted Tweets are already showing up for limited searches) I think phase 1 will go by with lots of initial fan fare, may even trend for a bit, and then will fall into the obscurity of the already accepted and ignored ads that float in the periphery of the likes of sites such as Google, Facebook, The New York Times and even National Geographic. I am curious to see how much traction Promoted Tweets will actually gain. I myself don’t spend much time on a search.twitter.com – though over coffee in the break room this morning I learned of few co-workers who do use twitter search as their almost exclusive local search tool.

Phase 2 however, has me itching already to get my feathers all ruffled up. I am trying to maintain my calm composure, with a “wait and see” attitude… but I gotta letcha know I feel pretty dang partial to my twitter stream being my own. I don’t really have much love for the bullying bull-horn approach of most advertising campaigns and I feel like in the world of social media – where personal brands are more important than big brand loyalty and famous personalities have more followers than global news organizations – there is not going to be a great big love fest should Twitter choose to place paid tweets from mega-brands into the streams of its users.

For more on Twitter Promoted Tweets take your eye-balls on over to:

• The New York Times: Twitter Unveils Plans to Draw Money From Ads
• The New York Times: Tensions Rise for Twitter and App Developers
• Houston Chronicle TechBlog: Twitter finds a business model in Promoted Tweets
• Search.Twitter.com, Results for Promoted Tweets
• Mashable: Twitter Promoted Tweets Are Live
• The Huffington Post: Promoted Tweets: Twitter Ad Program To Draw Money From Corporate Advertising
• TechCrunch: “Promoted Tweets” Not Resonating Well On Twitter

(Thanx! for the pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessandthecity/3822639162/)

One of the values at Schipul is Win/Win. This means that in an interaction or agreement or business-dealing, both sides walk away feeling like they have gained something. When we do work for our clients, we earn their business, and in turn they are provided with a service they need. The Blog Contest is, on most scales, a true example of Win/Win.

The Blog owner can be seeking PR, attention, an urge for traffic, or perhaps they just have extra stuff. To accomplish their goal, they can utilize traditional advertising, but this does not always help them reach their audience in a fun and interesting way. Even online advertising can be a poor fit for the audience or the budget. The flexibility of the Blog Contest allows you to give away pretty much anything, from a Wii Fit to netbooks to cat T’s.

From the reader perspective, generally very little is asked of you. Leave a funny comment, become a fan on facebook, mention something on twitter, etc. Much of the time your odds of winning are quite good compared to a business card fishbowl or a clearing house sweepstakes. And generally there is a high amount of transparency in seeing who wins. Unless a contest gets out of hand (see Wii Fit above), then the contest is contained to the community of people who read the blog, with maybe a few outsiders who are just around for the contest.

Even after a winner is announced, many great things have happened. Either a new reader has won something, which may keep them coming back as a reader, or an old reader has won something, which rewards them for being a part of the conversation. Attention is gained at a cost (like all advertising), but in this case the readers profit, not an Ad agency. Aside from some twitter contests which can be quite annoying (i.e. planet-orbiting-berry), the old-fashioned blog contest is a Win/Win event.

In all seriousness, these contests are really good for everyone and are turning into a great advancement in online economics. The scale of costs and attention help to create a happy event for all involved. A small giveaway creates a small burst of traffic, and giving away something large can create bigger waves on the internets. As a blog creator, you control the size and expense. As a blog contestant, you can control what contests you enter, and what is worth your time/attention/info. Everyone remains in control, traffic goes up, and someone is a winner.

In the words of Michael Scott, this is Win/Win/Win. One Win for the blogger, one Win for the contestants, and a Win for me for explaining it here and encouraging you to create a blog contest. There’s another Win too if you follow me on twitter, because all of my followers are winners.