Twitter Risks User Backlash With Advertising

Reports have started circulating that Twitter are considering adding 'promoted tweets' (thats advertising, to you and me) into user's tweet streams.

While this would answer one criticism leveled at the Twitter management (how do you monetise it?) it could adversely affect the user relationship and experience. Currently, a user only sees messages in their stream from users or companies they specifically choose to follow.

It seems a strangely old fashioned and intrusive way for a company to go about building an advertising platform in the new world of engagement and involvement. Many new media companies have used old fashioned advertising models when the opportunity was there to build something new. The VOD (Video on Demand) space is another example of this, where advertisers look to 'get in the way' of content a consumer really wants by shouting about themselves for 30 seconds.

We welcome the fact that Twitter are looking at ways for advertisers to reach their users, but simply believe there are better, less intrusive ways of doing it.