Time Sells Ads Space on Their Twitter and Facebook Profiles

889 days ago by Willis Wee, in Uncategorized

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Even if Twitter has no intention to place ads on its site, it does not stop Time.com from monetizing its profile.

Perhaps this is one possible future for social networking ads.

The idea is simple. Time’s Twitter and Facebook profiles are now available for ad placements. According to Fast Company, this idea is part of Time’s “Stay Connected” pitch to its advertisers – a new addition to its advertising portfolio.

Time’s Facebook Ad

TIme’s Twitter Ad

Does this work?

It is hard to measure the effectiveness of such ad placements. As Twitter users, we normally tweet via the web or through a 3rd party application like Tweetie and Tweetdeck. How many people will actually bother to check out Time’s profile?

Also, the Facebook ad has been nothing but unnoticeable. It took me more than 30 seconds to notice the ad located at the bottom of its fans’ avatars. Taking into account that I was intentionally looking for it, its effectiveness is highly questionable.

Could this be the future of social networking ads?

Social media is easy and available for everyone to use. Take YouTube for example, Obama girl, Shane Dawson and iJustine would not have the platform to communicate their whacky creations if it didn’t exist.

The movie, Final Destination has also leveraged Obama girl and Shane Dawson’s influence to advertise its screening via comedic videos. Obama girl’s video accumulated a whopping 1.3 million views in just 5 days while Shane Dawson’s videos hit 5 million views in a week!

Rather than paying celebrities for ad endorsements, perhaps it might be more cost effective to get social media users with a strong social network and influence to do the same job, but only more creatively.

Tags: Facebook, Marketing, Time, Twitter

About Willis Wee

Founder of Penn Olson who is also an entrepreneur since 2005. He has had experience in crafting social media strategies for organizations such as Marriott Vacation Club, James Cook University, Reach Singapore and Unilever. Contact him at willis[at]penn-olson[dot]com

View all posts by Willis Wee →

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← @ShaneDawson Final Destination Videos Hit 5 Million Views

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http://www.twitterimage.com Hugh Briss

You're actually not correct that most of us use third-party apps like Tweetdeck. The last study I saw showed that 65% of Twitter users actually did their tweeting from Twitter itself. This is especially true of all the new users until they even find out about the apps and of course lots of people just prefer using Twitter.

You also need to take into account how many people will see the background at least once when they are deciding whether or not to follow a particular member.
http://twitter.com/williswee Willis Wee

Hi Hugh thanks for the comment. I agree and i did state that tweeps normally tweet through the web and 3rd party applications. While some new users might actually check out Time's profile, i'm doubting most of us will. There are too many profiles to check if we were to do it one at a time.
http://www.twitterimage.com Hugh Briss

Anyone that is thinking of following Time on Twitter will more than likely check out their profile and with nearly 1.5 million followers, they're adding a heck of a lot of new followers every day and that's a lot of people seeing the background and “sponsored by Siemens”.
http://twitter.com/williswee Willis Wee

Hi Hugh. I think we have differing views on this but i respect yours and you may be right. Let's hope there is statistic to help us find out if such advertising is indeed effective. Cheers