Yesterday, Twitter announced the release of it’s long-awaited ad platform entitled “Twitter Promoted Tweets”.  Bear with me because I’m trying to get up to speed with all of the provisions behind the new service, but here’s my “first-glance” review in the form of 3 quick points:

• Since Promoted Tweets are going to have the same look, feel and functionality of typical tweets, advertisers will now have a quick and easy way to combine their brand’s paid and earned Twitter efforts.  Users can retweet and reply to the tweet as they would if the tweet lived within the advertiser’s normal stream.  We talk a lot about the importance and potential success gained from driving earned media with paid placements… this is a condensed version that all lives within Twitter (smart).

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• Noting the inclusion of 3rd party apps like Tweetdeck is essential.  We’re seeing usage numbers for these apps skyrocket (including mobile).  Keeping Promoted Tweets contained to Twitter Search results initially is a great test, but eventually all revisions or new opportunities will have to be done with these applications in mind.  Twitter is on top of this.

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• Some advertisers will fail.  Because of the nature of the Promoted Tweets, advertisers will have to have already been established and have a clear understanding of their objectives on Twitter.  If they try to jump into the Twitter world because of the new ad availability, which some will, they will most likely fall flat.  Advertisers need to be constantly reminding themselves that this is the same as a typical tweet voiced to/with your followers.  The only difference now is getting that message in front of more eyeballs.  Twitter’s language in the blog post releasing Promoted Tweets is centered around usefulness to users… keep that in mind.

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What are your thoughts about the new platform?  Think Twitter is taking the right approach to the all-important question surrounding social monetization?