Twitter announced the first part of a plan for monetizing the social networking service: "Promoted Tweets." These sponsored status updates will appear in keyword search results by advertisers.

This is great for three reasons:
- Offers value to community. Twitter users can benefit from knowing the latest deal from favorite businesses. I personally have searched for a specific brand on Twitter to see their latest status updates, sales or news in case there are calls-to-action that peak my interest. For example, Dunkin' Donuts offered a free pastry with coffee purchase until 10am and it was only through my Twitter feed that I noticed the offer.
- It doesn't disrupt the experience. At this point, only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page, so a user doesn't have to scroll through tons of company deals that may not have anything to do with the search. These also will be limited on a user's personal news stream, preventing over saturation in personal accounts.
- Recognizable. It is a process similar to Google's sponsored results, so the majority of Twitter users will be familiar and comfortable with it. The ad's will be clearly labeled.
Additionally, Twitter is testing out the process, so if people aren't looking/clicking through a sponsored tweet, the advertiser won't be charged, giving brands a cost-effective way to experiment using the channel to generate revenue.
It has also been suggested that this new strategy by Twitter may be a good opportunity for brands confronting negative conversations to mitigate or offer a more positive viewpoint via the new Promoted Tweet model. From a user's perspective, however, this could come across as an unauthentic attempt by the brand to solve a problem or misunderstanding.
Interestingly, Yelp also announced last week that they were removing the equivalent of Promoted Tweets on their review channel - killing "Featured Reviews." This is a more sensitive issue, as businesses expressed pressure from sales teams to purchase and users didn't seem to always understand that the first review was chosen and paid for by the business.
What do you think of the Yelp ad model? Is it good for brands and users? Will Promoted Tweets on Twitter last?

There has been a lot of discussion and opinions circling since the release of the 







