**Twitter has said it will allow advertising on its site for the first time.**The social networking site said advertisers would be able to buy what it is calling Promoted Tweets that will appear on Twitter’s search page.
It has been reluctant to allow advertising in the past.
However, co-founder Biz Stone said they would not be traditional adverts. They must be Tweets that “resonate with users” and be part of conversations.
Twitter has already signed up a raft of big name organisations such as Sony Pictures, coffee chain Starbucks and US retailer Best Buy.
It describes the Promoted Tweets as “ordinary Tweets that businesses and organisations want to highlight to a wider group of users”.
Only one Tweet will show up on each search results page, the company said.
It is the first toe in the advertising water for the social networking site, which has yet to make a profit.
This is the first phase of its advertising plans. In future, Promoted Tweets will appear on users’ timelines, not just on Twitter search results pages.
Keen not to alienate his members, Biz Stone said that if users did not interact with Promoted Tweets by replying to them, “favoriting” them or retweeting them, they would “disappear”.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.