Selena Larson says, “Picture this: You’re scrolling through your Twitter feed, reading news, favoriting tweets, when a “buy button” suddenly shows up, embedded in a tweet. Do you click on it? Social media companies like Twitter and Facebook want to make money, and coupling payments with social identity seems like an easy way to do it. After all, we’ll eventually be paying with our smartphones and mobile applications that store our credit card information, so in a way it makes sense to tie our online social identities to our money”. Why Twitter Shouldn’t Bother With E-Commerce ReadWrite  [...]

Martin Beck says, “The evidence that Twitter is preparing an in-stream shopping service got another boost this week, when some users noticed a “payment & shipping” line within settings in the company’s Android app. As first reported by The Next Web blog, a number of users posted screen shots showing the setting, while noting that it did nothing when clicked”. Twitter Drops Another Hint That E-Commerce Could Be Coming Soon Marketing Land  [...]

Selena Larson says, “Sometimes blocking harassers on Twitter doesn’t do the trick. Many Twitter users want better ways to deal with them. Now they have one. In an attempt to help users better manage their accounts and block lists to prevent harassment, developer Jacob Hoffman-Andrews created “Block Together,” a tool that lets users automatically block new users who @-reply them and share their block lists with other Twitter users”. Creeps On Twitter Not Staying Blocked? Crowdsource The Job ReadWrite  [...]

Selena Larson says, “Twitter appears to be tinkering with one of its most valuable features—the follow system—just as CEO Dick Costolo said it might. If the social network’s recent experiments bear fruit, your Twitter feed might soon start displaying tweets from people you don’t follow, just because other people you follow do follow them. (For the sake of simplicity, let’s call these “friend-followed” accounts.) One Twitter user pointed out this new feature on Monday. He saw a tweet from the viral news site BuzzFeed appear in his timeline on mobile, along with... [...]

Jason Abbruzzese says, “Even if you have never tweeted, don’t have any followers or have never visited Twitter.com, chances are you have still seen a tweet at some point in your life. Twitter knows this, and it’s trying to figure out how to make money off it. The social media site demonstrated solid growth in its most-watched measurement — monthly active users (MAUs) — in its second-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. An unexpected profit, a positive outlook and growing revenue per 1,000 timeline views (a Twitter metric for how well it is making money from its platform), all... [...]

Jason Abbruzzese says, “Twitter bounced back from a rough start to 2014 with a second-quarter earnings report that showed a surprise profit and user growth that beat expectations. Second-quarter earnings of $312 million in revenues and a profit of $0.02 per share beat analysts’ expectations, which forecast revenue of $283 million and a loss of $0.01 per share. Most companies would be pleased with an unexpected profit, but growth in monthly active users, which hit 271 million, proved to be the real headline. Investors had grown cautious that Twitter’s slowing growth limited the company’s... [...]

Peter Kafka says, “Twitter reports its Q2 earnings tomorrow afternoon, which means investors will be judging whether Dick Costolo has fixed his growth problem. One thing they won’t see or hear about, though, will be a new set of metrics from Twitter describing the company’s reach scale. While Twitter has had internal discussions about new ways of measuring the service, whose growth numbers have been a problem since it went public, people familiar with the company say it won’t offer up those numbers on Tuesday. That said, Costolo will still likely want to talk about Twitter’s reach... [...]

Aaron Taube says, “At long last, Twitter has announced it will allow all advertisers to purchase its mobile app install ads, which ask people if they want to download or use a mobile app while they’re browsing Twitter on their phones. Twitter has been testing the app install ads with select partners since at least November, and now it is opening the function up to anyone else who would like to use its self-serve ad platform. Here’s what they’ll look like: This should provide a major boost to Twitter’s bottom line in light of how successful mobile app install ads... [...]

Allison Howen says, “After a successful beta run, Twitter is officially rolling out its mobile app promotion ads globally. The new ad units help advertisers drive app installs and increase app engagement. Through the app promotion ads, advertisers can leverage Twitter’s targeting capabilities, including interest, keyword, TV targeting and tailored audiences, to reach the right consumers. Plus, advertisers also have the ability to target based on factors like gender, geography, language and mobile platform. Once targeting is set, advertisers can customize their ad by using Promoted... [...]

Diana Urban says, “Twitter isn’t just for getting followers, retweets, and replies — it’s also a valuable marketing channel for generating qualified leads. But when you’re trying to generate leads on Twitter, your tweets have to be a little different than normal. With a few tweaks, your tweets can be transformed into lead generation machines — you just have to know what those little tweaks are. Recently, Twitter’s Anne Mercogliano and HubSpot’s Kipp Bodnar teamed up to share their top tips for generating leads on Twitter in just 25 minutes a day.... [...]