Over the past year there has been a lot of talk about the advertising side of Twitter, and most of it has been positive. They have done a good job at keeping their ads unobtrusive, while still providing a great service to the people buying ad space. As they continue to test their ‘Buy Now’ button in some small markets, however, it will be even more important to ensure they don’t alienate the users.
Adam Bain, Twitter’s President of Global Revenue, was recently in a discussion while at the Web Summit Conference in Dublin, Ireland where he expanded on what Twitter is working on doing with this, and their other advertising sources.
The Buy Now button is a beta tool that will give users the option to immediately buy products that people are tweeting about. So, if I tweet about a book that I recently enjoyed, for example, Twitter may put a buy now button up so you can quickly purchase that book.
If done properly, this can be a great feature that will make Twitter a lot of money, while also providing users with a nice feature. Bain said about this feature, “We’re experimenting with different products and price points, and most importantly what emotions do you need to find to generate a sale. What we do is monetize emotions.”
It is interesting that he phrases it that way, since many businesses tend to shy away from this type of language, fearing it may sound too manipulative. The fact is, however, that all (or at least most) marketing is essentially attempting to harness the power of emotions to drive purchases.
This feature, regardless of how it is being pushed, will be something to keep an eye on. It could drive a lot of profits for Twitter, while also introducing a great advertising option that other social networks will undoubtedly try to follow suit.
