Twitter is now accepting sign-ups from small businesses that want to participate in its self-serve ad program.
The self-serve rollout was reported this afternoon by Ad Age (http://adage.com/article/digital/twitter-opens-serve-ad-platform-10-000-businesses/232787/) and others (http://www.techmeme.com/120216/p75#a120216p75), and the sign-up page is now live (https://ads.twitter.com/amex/). In a promotion with American Express, Twitter is offering a $100 credit for free advertising to the first 10,000 businesses that register — you just have to accept American Express cards, or be a cardholder yourself. Oh, and the sign-up process also requires you to follow American Express on Twitter.
Twitter has been talking about expanding its advertising program to a self-serve model (http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/can-twitters-self-serve-ad-product-meet-rosy-expectations-to-drive-revenues-to-400m-by-2013/) for a while now. Ad Age reports that the company currently works with 3,000 advertisers, so even the first wave of self-serve customers will mark a big expansion of the program. The self-serve platform is supposed go live in late March.
A Twitter spokesperson says the company will be making a more formal announcement on Friday.
TechCrunch