Forrestor’s Interactive Marketing Blog recently took on the subject of Twitter’s recently announced advertising platform.

If you haven’t heard, Twitter announced on Monday 4/12 that they will be rolling out their first paid advertising platform to begin monetizing their mammoth micromedia platform. The service is being called “Promoted Tweets”, and will initially be launched as promotional tweets that show up on Twitter.com search results. It’s the first step in a multi-stage roll-out, so there is definitely more to come, including the possibility of “Promoted Tweets” becoming a free tweet, as described by the NYTimes.com.

This is an exciting development to say the least. But don’t think that “Promoted Tweets” or whatever it evolves into will be the next Google AdWords. In fact, according to Augie Ray of Forrester, there are many risks associated with inapproriate use of paid Twitter ads, including public backlash against perceived “bully pulpit” tactics by brands.

Augie summarizes what this all means for the commercial use of Twitter by astutely noting that “this may be paid media, but it is a few drops of paid media in a sea of earned media.”

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