July 10, 2012 | 1 Comment

Can Sponsored Tweets Be As Natural Their Facebook Counterpart?

When I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed the other day I noticed that my friend Rosie liked Target. I opened it up again today, and see that it’s still at the top of my newsfeed. Then I saw it, small, not very noticeable: sponsored. At first I felt cheated. I look to my newsfeed for interactions my friends are doing on Facebook, not advertising (which I’ve grown accustomed to on the right of the page). But then my business head started thinking… Facebook are smart.

Facebook Looks Natural

It’s not just a sponsored ad like on the right side, it is a legitimate activity, performed by one of my friends that causes it to show up on my timeline, and stay on top of my timeline for at least a week now….

Different To Sponsored Tweets?

Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets” seems to be getting a lot more negative attention than the very similar initiative of Facebook, and I think the reason is a very slight but very important one. While Twitter just takes content based tweets and pushes them to the top of your home timeline, Facebook actually ties it to your friends, to your network.

Here is what started appearing on my Home Timeline shortly after I searched “Honda” on Twitter:

The attempt is made by Twitter to pull in my network “Followed by GKIC and others” but it doesn’t have the same impact as: “Hey Look, your friend just liked this page recently.”

Can Twitter Find A Way?

Maybe that’s something Twitter can’t really address. After all Twitter and Facebook are not the same. Maybe pushing advertisements to the top of timelines and searches is the best the network can do. And I don’t doubt that Twitter campaigns are successful. I’m sure they bring clicks. I’d be interested in seeing a comparison between sponsored posts in Facebook and Sponsored Tweets and do a proper comparison (if anyone has run both please comment).

Tags: featured, sponsored facebook posts, sponsored tweets, twitter

Author:Tammy Kahn Fennell

Tammy is the editor of this fine blog, and the CEO of MarketMeSuite, the premium Social Media Inbox for Small Businesses. Go on, you can even use it for free! You can follow Tammy on Twitter @Tammykfennell.

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http://twitter.com/RxSennett Rosie Sennett

Thanks for the Cameo! : ) I think you’ve hit the nail on the head regarding the inherent differences between Twitter and Facebook being the key here. I “liked” Target because of the exact same experience you had. Real friends were “liking” it and it was riding prominently in my feed. In this case, because most of my Facebook Friends ARE actually friends in real life, the sponsored ad didn’t need to have anything personal about it other than my friend’s name. Seeing it a few times worked for me. I eventually clicked.

My Twitter feed however – is filled with mostly strangers. Some of them are becoming familiar and I’m starting to see who’s opinions I agree with and who uses their Twitter feed to just push info (useful or fluff). I try to add a bit of commentary when I Tweet about an article or blog – so naturally I’m going to pay attention to others who do that rather than just posting a link and the title. I don’t follow companies who don’t interact. I’d follow a company who’s sponsored tweet actually said something a human being would say.

Twitter feeds all have different flavors. Mine is mostly about Social Media… so I’d appreciate an ad that was related. I would not have appreciated a sponsored ad from Target on my Twitter feed. Like gratuitous product placement in film (90′s style) yes the product name hits someone’s brain, but in a Big Brother sorta way… which is not a compliment. : )