Illustrated below is a Promoted Tweet for Starbucks who have chosen to advertise in the #nowplaying trending hashtag.

In the UK, [...]]]> Twitter has launched “Promoted Tweets” which gives brands the opportunity to pay to post their Tweets in the first search result. This allows brands to jump to the first position on trending topics.

Illustrated below is a Promoted Tweet for Starbucks who have chosen to advertise in the #nowplaying trending hashtag.

In the UK, leading brands have reacted with interest and some of the first brands to use Twitter to promote their brands include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks and Virgin America.

Twitter users’ reactions to the prospect of promoted tweets on Twitter has been mixed. Tweets covering brands that carry sentiment are typically low –  most are informative or promotional – but the hashtag #promotedtweets seems to be carrying large negative sentiment at present. Techcrunch have been tracking sentiment and estimate that over 70% of Twitter users are unreceptive to them.

Their opinion aside, the next few weeks/months will be key to see if Promoted Tweets have any real and measurable return on investment for brands migrating marketing budget to this new channel.