American Express Cardmembers Get Early Access To Twitter Ad Platform

Small US businesses that are American Express merchants or cardmembers have been offered the chance to receive early access to Twitter’s new advertising platform. Registration for the early bird trial began today and the full service is expected to launch in March.

The first 10,000 American Express small businesses that have never advertised on Twitter before can register here to win $100 (£63) in free ads. American Express will then follow up applications in the next few weeks via direct messages in Twitter to provide additional details and eligibility information.

Twitter travellers cheques

The programme, which is expected to be opened to all American Express businesses later this year, is Twitter’s first advertising push designed for small businesses. The company claims that the programme will allow them to attract new followers and interact with existing ones.

“Small businesses were among the first to embrace Twitter as a way to connect and interact with consumers in real-time,” commented Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO. “Today, we’re announcing a simple way for small businesses to amplify their voices on Twitter and reach a new set of potential customers using our Promoted Products.

“With its deep commitment to supporting small businesses, American Express is an ideal partner to help us launch this new advertising offering and give small business owners everything they need to get started with advertising on Twitter,” he added.

Twitter currently uses Promoted Tweets to earn its advertising revenues and promoted Brand Pages in its recent December redesign, allowing companies to create a greater impression on visitors through the use of large header logos, embedded media, and the ability to push tweets to the top of a profile.

Advertising is the revenue source for most social networks and is rapidly becoming a highly contested battleground. Google currently generates most of its revenue through its AdWords service, but is increasingly being challenged by Facebook thanks to its “Like” button and social tools. However, one area Google still has the advantage is in mobile, due its Android platform.