Twitter will soon follow up its promoted trends, accounts and search results with the biggest advertisement push yet: promoted tweets in your stream.
If advertisers pay enough you could see 140 character bursts from accounts you do not follow, appearing among the banal babbling of your friends and co-workers.
Sources with direct knowledge of the plans told the Financial Times that Twitter is meeting with advertisers at the Cannes Lions creativity fest in France. According to Mashable, the public rollout could happen in the next two months.
The micro-blogging company is also discussing other premium features and options, FT says, including Groupon-inspired deals and vouchers, enhanced profile pages for brands and the ability to schedule a message for automated tweeting.
Twitter has dabbled with a number of advertising models in its five year life. In April 2010 it rolled out " Promoted Tweets", which appeared at the top of search results for certain queries. Later that summer, Twitter rolled out "Promoted Trends", where advertisers could buy the top spot on the list of hot topics.
[partner id="wireduk"]The most recent push has been "Promoted Accounts", where brands and people can buy their way onto your "Who to follow" list.
While the Financial Times' report shows that Twitter is thinking about this push in a big way, and Mashable's timeframe shows it will happen sooner rather than later, Twitter has always stated this as the final goal.
When promoted tweets were first unveiled in April 2010, Twitter said that it would eventually display "relevant Promoted Tweets in your timelines in a way that is useful to you." In November 2010, it introduced advertisers' tweets in the timelines of HootSuite (a desktop client) users.
The firm said, at the time, "we will expand the rollout only when we feel we're delivering a high-quality user experience."
