Twitter Places Brand Tweets Atop Timelines

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Twitter will start letting brands pay to deliver tweets "at or near the top" of the timelines of their followers, the company announced on its blog today. The offering, called "Promoted Tweets to Followers," aims to increase the visibility of a company's tweets among people who have already expressed an interest in it.

Launch partners include Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO, JetBlue (see image), LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, TNT and Virgin America. Their tweets will appear in the new Twitter program during the "next several weeks," according to the blog post.

LivingSocial spokesperson Brendan Lewis told ClickZ News that Promoted Trends to Followers "provides us with another avenue to reach our members, and give them an advanced look at some deals before they hit 'conventionally,' like on our website or [mobile] app."

Meanwhile, Twitter hopes the move bolsters its monetization portfolio, which includes Promoted Trends ($120,000 per day with global brand reach), Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Tweets. The company didn't clarify pricing for Promoted Tweets to Followers.