Twitter, Online Ads | featured news

Twitter's announcement today that it will let advertisers target pitches based on words people type in tweets has marketing types in a tizzy over the potential for another ad venue as effective as 's search ads.

Rapper Snoop Dogg gave props on Twitter to an ad for the Toyota Sienna minivan. Actress Tori Spelling linked to a website for rental cars. And reality TV star Khloe Kardashian soliloquized about the brand of jeans that accentuates the famous Kardashian derriere.

Twitter is now selling its "Promoted Tweets" for $100,000, according to an article in this morning's Wall St. Journal. "Promoted Tweets," which allow companies to buy the top spot on Twitter's Search results page, is just one of the microblogging network's new advertising initiatives as of late. The idea behind these digital ads is that the service allows companies to associate themselves with a certain trend or keyword.

Twitter this week began testing a new type of advertising: “Promoted Trends.” Under the new system, brands can pay to appear below the “Trending Topics,” the most talked-about terms on Twitter at any given moment.

Ads will be rolled out to two to 10 percent of users via search on Twitter.com beginning today.

It seems as though Twitter is finally ready to get down to business. Following search deals with Microsoft and Google that put the company at break even for 2009 and the recent hiring of a CFO, Twitter is now said to be readying the launch of its long-rumored ad platform.

Kim Kardashian, Soulja Boy and Lauren Conrad reportedly bank big bucks tweeting. In an effort to drive unemployed people totally insane, The Daily Beast compiled a list of how much celebrities get paid to Tweet. We already told you that Kim Kardashian makes at least $10,000 every time she tweets about a company. And let me refresh your memory: You were majorly bummed out about it.

The Twitter phenomenon, in which anybody can tell his or her followers anything -- in 140 characters or less -- now has a payoff that can go beyond the thrill of self-publishing.

Twitter is most interested in striking distribution partnerships with big Internet and media companies, not in being acquired or striking an advertising deal, says company director Fred Wilson.