Twitter may still be on the road toward a profitable business model, but that hasn't stopped others from cashing in on the microblog platform's popularity. The Huffington Post is the latest, letting marketers insert paid tweets into live Twitter feeds the site assembles around its news coverage, according to Ad Age.
The publisher will also let marketers insert paid comments into its reader comment sections, an area traditionally reserved for reader conversation. Advertising in a comments section will not reach every consumer who lands on a page -- one of the lead stories on the HuffPo's homepage today had 2,000 comments at press time -- but it will reach a very dedicated and enthusiastic group of consumers, provided that group isn't turned off by the ads.
In fact, the publisher's biggest challenge now is making sure its readers are open to the in-stream advertising. As with any other social media venture, marketers will be encouraged to add value to the existing conversation, and The Huffington Post will offer guidance on how to do this. The publisher expects advertisers to contribute tweets and comments related to the conversation in addition to the advertising.
