Traditional advertising is no longer the front-runner for businesses. Since social media has exploded throughout the past few years, companies have been utilizing it to target audiences. One of the most useful social media tools for advertising can be seen through Twitter, which now offers paid advertising for companies. In fact, Twitter is not the only social media platform that has adopted this advertising feature. This has become extremely popular for businesses that want to directly reach audiences through their hand held devices.

However, Twitter makes it extremely easy for businesses to get the most out of their paid advertising. This platform allows the company to select specific advertising campaigns and features to reach targeted audiences. Each advertising campaign has a direct purpose to achieve influence, and uses Twitter in different ways. This allows the company to select a campaign that is fitted for their specific purpose. The three types of advertising on Twitter include:
1. Promoted tweets
2. Promoted accounts
3. Promoted trends

One example of a company that has benefited from a Twitter advertising campaign is Airbnb, which is a marketplace for individuals to book living and travel accommodations. Airbnb used the promoted tweets campaign to make sure they influenced targeted individuals and created engagement. According to a case study done by Jeff Bullas, Airbnb used Twitter advertising to “achieve an engagement rate of over 4% for one of their Promoted Tweets.” This campaign was so successful because Airbnb provided an initiative for individuals to engage with them by offering discounts through their website. Providing an initiative is so important because companies want to be certain that their Twitter campaigns will spark action and achieve influence.

One of the most beneficial features of social media advertising is that companies can reach their audiences when they are least expecting to be influenced. While individual’s scroll through their Twitter feed they are only expecting to see tweets from the account they follow. However, with Twitter ads, individuals are exposed to information that they wouldn’t normally see. This gives businesses the ability to pop up on individuals Twitter feeds that wouldn’t normally be exposed to their account’s information. Unlike traditional advertising, this feature is more intrusive, but also more easily accessible for the individuals. When an individual is exposed to a television ad, they have to be influenced enough to get on their computer or mobile device and type in the product or companies website information. However when an individual is exposed to a Twitter ad, all they have to do is click on the tweet to instantly direct them to the product or company. This creates a more direct path of action, which is beneficial to both the company and the individual.

Companies have little to lose and much to gain by starting a Twitter advertising campaign. All three types of campaigns are easy to use and provide endless possibilities of engagement and influence. The best part is that companies can control each step of the campaign, selecting price, audience, and level of influence. This really allows each campaign to be molded to the company’s specific needs.

KnockMedia loves to use Twitter to promote, inform and share knowledge. Check us out: @knockmedia.