Twitter and Facebook to boost news organisations' ad revenue?

Posted by Helena Humphrey on February 1, 2010 at 1:59 PM

The past few years has seen the explosive growth of social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, and a dramatic downturn in advertising revenue that has set about ravaging the newspaper industry. PoynterOnline has now reported new enterprises between the two industries however, which could prove profitable for both.

Few news outlets are without their own Twitter account these days, using the site's micro-blogging capabilities as a means to distribute stories and attract a wider audience. The Austin American-Statesman is using theirs to sell tweets to local business, which can advertise their enterprises on the newspaper's Twitter account.

The benefits are apparent for both parties: The Austin American-Statesman continues to reach growing audiences and advertisers have a new means of reaching customers. Furthermore, smaller businesses, perhaps not able to afford the cost of newspaper advertising, have more affordable means of communication. For the price of $300 per day, advertisers are able to send out two tweets of 124 characters everyday, once the publication's social media editor, Robert Quigley, has approved them. Two local businesses, a restaurant and a local tourist attraction, took advantage of the offer, advertising of the newspaper's two Twitter accounts last autumn.

According to Quigley, the majority of followers found the advertising non-intrusive, perhaps due to the fact that he had stipulated adverts must be action related - for example detailing a special offer that will benefit the reader, as opposed to "a used car ad". He is aware that there is no margin for error and realises that readers come to his site looking for news first and foremost, adding, "I think the community has to come first. We spend so much effort building this community that it wouldn't be worth ruining over a couple hundred dollars a day."

In a similar move, The Huffington Post will launch an enterprise allowing advertisers to pay for tweets and comments. Greg Coleman, president and chief revenue officer of The Huffington Post, said "This offering is a way for advertisers to be a part of the conversation happening on the Web -- not just bystanders to it -- in a completely transparent way," Indeed, advertisers' tweets and comments would be marked as such so that readers know where the information is coming from.

The New York Times is currently using both Facebook and Twitter to permit advertisers to reach customers who reach nytimes.com content through the social networking sites: Advertisers are able to purchase share of anywhere between 25 to 50 percent of these readers. The newspaper group also sold one advertiser a program that incorporates Twitter feeds in online advertisements. Although senior vice president and chief advertising officer at the group, Denise Warren, said that advertising and social networking partnerships have yet to bring in a great deal of revenue, she did add that: "Advertisers are looking for creative ideas around social media. It's definitely something that's gaining more interest than it did six or nine months ago. It's no secret that the consumer is interested in social communities and networking. Taking advantage of that is at the forefront of it all."

Source: PoynterOnline