Twitter is letting small and medium-sized businesses outside the US advertise on the site for the first time, as the social network looks to woo brands a week after its IPO. The move will see Twitter opened its self-serve advertising platform to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, Ireland and Canada, allowing it […]
Twitter is letting small and medium-sized businesses outside the US advertise on the site for the first time, as the social network looks to woo brands a week after its IPO.
The move will see Twitter opened its self-serve advertising platform to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, Ireland and Canada, allowing it for the first time to sell ad space directly to small business outside America.
Previously, companies not based in the US have had to develop a working relationship with Twitter in order to buy adverts on the site. That limited the site’s customer base to large companies only, and correspondingly lowered on the amount of revenue it could raise.
“If you can Tweet, you can advertise on Twitter,” says Ravi Narasimhan, a product manager at the company. “All you need is a Twitter account and a credit card. You’re in control of your ads, the audience you want to reach, and of course your budget. Best of all, you will only be charged when people follow your Promoted Account or retweet, reply, favorite or click on your Promoted Tweets. You are never charged for your organic Twitter activity.”
In the UK, the self-service platform has been launched in partnership with O2, which is offering support and resources to SMEs, including a tool to let SMEs monitor their social media activity. O2 is also awarding £50 Twitter ad credit for free to customers who use the tool.
“During conversations with our small business customers we are often told that what they really need is advice to understand how they can use platforms like Twitter,” says O2’s Ben Dowd. “We believe that it’s our responsibility as both a large corporate and a digital services company to guide them. That’s why we are investing our time, money and expertise in this new social insights platform.”
Read the official blog post here
