It’s February, which means it’s about time for an update on promises made by Twitter last year.
The new Twitter brand pages, launched to selected brands in December 2011, are slowly being rolled for more brands. This roll out is available for UK based brands in particular on 1 February. Charities, media organisations, and individuals are also being given the opportunity to embrace new brand pages.
But according to reports there is a catch. Ad Age says only brands with a Twitter ad spend of at least $25 000 will be eligible for the new brand pages.
Ad Age also reported that the 21 brands initially included in the rollout had committed to an ad spend of $2 million.
Some commentators feel that this threshold isn’t terribly high considering the cost of advertising on Twitter. An article from The Next Web last year reported that promoted trends cost $120 000 a day and that the minimum ad spend for auction based ad options was $15 000 over three months.
With the impact of these brand pages yet to be determined, this is definitely an area to watch.
Some have even questioned whether this overhaul will have the intended impact. A study conducted by Simple Usability in January 2012 found that the inclusion of recommendations on ‘who to follow’, recently introduced by Twitter to its interface, means users may never actually view the brand page at all.
It goes on to mention that the success of these new pages is wholly dependent on how well companies come across and whether users engage with them successfully. This suggests a reliance on content marketing rather than forking out on advertiser-oriented features.
Quirk Social Media Manager, Lauren Potgieter, had some concerns about what the new brand pages might signal for the platform, “It raises questions around whether content is still king. I wonder whether they are trying to transform the medium of Twitter, which is all about microblogging and a very content rich formula, and give it a more visual weighting?” says Lauren.
She believes that it could turn Twitter into a more of a "package" platform, where users can pick the free or supreme package in order to "bump up" the visual element of their pages.
Lauren compared the platform to Facebook, which she feels still has a basic template allowing all brands equal footing in their profile pages. This structure on Facebook offers a more level playing field while Twitter’s move seems to be encouraging a brand hierarchy.
What remains clear is that Twitter is looking to attract advertising from high-profile brands to monetise their platform further.
But should our big African brands seriously consider this investment?
For Quirk Social Media, Twitter has always been about the fast-paced, fluid conversation - it's an ongoing dialogue that people dip in and out of. It's not like Facebook where brand pages and personal pages are important destinations because the real-time conversation is the most important thing.
Ultimately the $25 000 in advertising for a brand page needs to make sense to the spender.
How successful these pages will be remains to be seen. We are watching the rollout closely.
Where do you think it’s going?
