Auto-Ad Scheduling is Coming to Twitter

Twitter fans have noticed the increasing number of ads that are slipping in mid-stream, above the stream and to the side but you ain’t seen nothing yet.

According to Reuters, Twitter is about to test an automated system that will allow clients to schedule their own ads. Currently, an advertiser has to talk to a human in order to get that Promoted Tweet in the stream, but this new offering will allow clients to set up ads on the fly and change them on a whim.

For Twitter users, this isn’t good news. Twitter is a relatively small system. There are only a few places where you can insert an ad and for those who don’t follow a thousand people, an influx of Promoted Tweets is going to be very noticeable. I’d hope that there is a safeguard that would keep the ads from being the majority of any stream, but maybe not.

For Twitter, it’s a big step toward becoming a real player in the online ad market. For marketers, it’s even bigger. Automation means flexibility and that’s important, particularly with a network like Twitter that still isn’t tried and true.
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Twitter By Their Numbers

Twitter has posted some numbers on their blog with the intent of making the world (and particularly those at SXSW I suppose) go “Ooooo! ahhhhh!” here are the highlights

Regarding the number of accounts:

        * 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
        * 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
        * 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

Regarding the number of tweets

        * 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
        * 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
        * 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
        * 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
        * 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
        * 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
        * 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

OK, the numbers are impressive. There is no denying that Twitter has a very real place in the world. As marketers though we need more detail because if there is one thing that the Web 2.0 has shown us is that quantity and quality rarely have a direct correlation.

In fact, we have learned to take any numbers we hear as ‘evangelical’ (meaning those used to promote a service) and go so far as to cut them in half in order to think we are closer to reality than the number provider really is.

We that in mind here are a few questions that would really help marketers.

    * How many of these accounts are placeholder accounts from people who have simply squatted or protected a name or idea?
    * What percentage of new accounts represent real people?
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