Despite being kind of a big deal for the past seven years, the money men now recognize that Black twitter exists and plans to capitalize on its users. Twitter, now a public company, needs ways to generate ad revenue and is rubbing its wings together with plans to make uber-coin off its racially diverse user base by selling ads that are directly targeted and influenced by their interests.
Targeted advertising is nothing new for the social media giant, who announced they would include promoted “tweets” (advertisements) in April 2010. But until the addition of marketing veteran Nuria Santamaria in November 2013, Black twitter’s existence went unnoticed by the company.
Twitter has long been known for its popularity among blacks. The Pew Research Center reports that blacks, Hispanic and Asian-American users account for 41 percent of Twitter’s 54 million users compared to Facebook’s 34 percent.
From finding out when Justine Sacco’s plane would land to bringing George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s killer to the forefront of America’s consciousness, #Blacktwitter has brought many issues to light.
Companies such as Allstate “major in Twitter” advertisements among black users, says Georgina Flores, director of multicultural marketing at Allstate Corp. Flores notes that Allstate created a dedicated Twitter handle and Twitter-centric website, part of its effort to reach black consumers.
Blacks flock to Twitter because it is used primarily on phones, and smartphones are the primary Internet device used by many blacks, says Meredith Clark, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who is studying “Black Twitter.” “Some young blacks use Twitter in place of text messages, encouraging their friends to join the service as well,” she says.
Could that mean all those lyrical tweets “I been drankin’ watermelon” from Beyoncé could suddenly appear in the form of advertised tweets about the superstar icon? Yep.
Santamaria tells the Wall Street Journal that advertisers want to know more about racial and ethnic minorities on Twitter, from basic numbers to the languages in which they tweet. Her first order of business will be to target Hispanics. She recently met with ad agencies to reveal a coming report that Hispanics tweet more often than other users and often about technology.