Twitter is working hard at finding ways to monetize their growing popularity without alienating the audience that made them that way.
Introducing TwitVid SocialAds. Think of this as a PPC strategy for social media. Advertising companies offer entertainment videos that can only be seen by a viewer first “re-tweeting” the post or “following” the company.
On one hand, this strategy gets us beyond the brief annoying video advertisements that precede many online video clips. But, forcing people to make a “commitment” to your company before watching something doesn’t seem like a great long-term strategy either. And I wonder how large of an audience will be willing to do this? The company defends this tactic by claiming that the videos can be ultra-targeted, only exposing brands to high-interest potential customers. During a private test of the product, TwitVid claims that brands were getting more than 400 new followers an hour (2% of viewers).