Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) announced Thursday that its do-it-yourself advertising platform is now available to small and mid-size businesses in the U.K., Ireland and Canada. Following its successful IPO, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is under intense pressure to generate earnings. The microblogging site claims that 4.5 million small businesses have active accounts on its platform. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is enticing them to start advertising on the microblogging site.
Twitter improves its ad platform
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) made its ad platform available to U.S. small businesses in April. It allowed thousands of businesses to connect and interact with their prospects and community members. Since then, the company has added several new features like pre-scheduled tweets and specific search targets. Business owners can use Promoted Accounts to reach their audience and build a long list of followers. It also offers Promoted Tweets that help businesses engage with people who aren’t already following them. Promoted Tweets are ads that look like a usual tweet that appear in high traffic areas, embedded in user’s timelines.
Now businesses in the U.K., Canada and Ireland can also see first hand if Twitter can improve their bottom line. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) charges businesses only when people follow their Promoted Accounts; or follow, reply, retweet, click or favorite their Promoted Tweets.
Not all is well with Twitter
However, not all is good with Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s advertising platform. Most small businesses have questioned its usefulness in helping their businesses. Many small businesses have said that Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s promoted accounts and tweets haven’t helped much to improve their bottom line.
Many of them prefer Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s ad platform over Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). That’s because the Menlo Park-based social networking giant has more users, allowing small businesses to reach a larger audience through sponsored posts. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) needs to justify its lofty valuation. Though its revenues more than doubled to $422 million in the first nine months this year, net losses grew to $134 million.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares were little changed at $42.58 in pre-market trading.
