Twitter

 Much has been written about the roll-out of ‘Promoted Tweets,’ Twitter’s new advertising feature. Many are discussing the business model and debating if/how advertising will impact the platform’s user experience. I had the pleasure attending the debut of Promoted Tweets by Dick Costolo, COO of Twitter at the AdAge Digital Confereance 2010. 

The world of sports, sports media and sports marketing are bigger now than they’ve ever been. The range and reach of digital media, branded play-by-play updates available directly on your cell phone and the recent emergence of Twitter have allowed brands – especially sports entities – and media to connect with consumers through new channels. And as the industry continues to grow (and sponsors continue spending millions in athlete endorsements), companies can utilize new mediums to maximize their marketing investments and further build brand affinity.    

It's pretty incredible how social media has the power to inspire social change by uniting and mobilizing people all over the world. Without tools like Facebook and Twitter, events just simply aren't as successful, and frequently these tools help generate enough buzz to make the evening news. Case in point – Twestival.