Not content with launching just one major platform update in a week, Twitter announced Promote Mode on Wednesday, a new automation tool targeted at smaller brands without the time or funding to manually manage amplification campaigns.
Promote Mode is, as far as advertising tools go, fairly simple. In the announcement, Wook Chung, Twitter’s director of product management, describes the services as an “always-on amplification engine.” In essence, for a flat fee of $99 per month, the service will automatically promote the user’s account every time they Tweet, up to 10 times per day.
The service offers simplified, user-friendly analytics tools, displaying total reach, followers and profile visits gained while Promote Mode is active as well as colorful graphs displaying organic reach alongside the higher promoted figures.
The service emphasizes ease of use over personalization, however. Users cannot select which Tweets are promoted, they must pause Promote Mode to Tweet without amplifying them. The service will never promote retweets, replies or quotes. Furthermore, users can only select five different interests or regions to target, which is far less than the app’s main advertising service offers.
Twitter’s announcement calls the service “mobile-first,” but at the moment it’s available mobile-only through the app. Users must sign up through Sprout Social, a Twitter partner, to track engagements on desktop.
Though Twitter did not guarantee any results for Promote Mode subscribers, it stated that one of the initial testers, @RIMtailing, gained 30 followers and reached 30,000 new people per month.
The program is releasing in beta form, so its current state may not reflect its final release.
“We know that budding businesses and individuals with personal brands want to grow their presence on Twitter,” said Chung. “But this can be hard—especially for those who are new to Twitter.”
