Hyder and I spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on our entry on the Sponsored Tweets API Challenge, a competition for developers and designers to make use of the Sponsored Tweets API. The competition aims at rewarding the best entry judged on
- Creativity
- User adoption potential (or actual)
- Revenue generation potential (or actual)
So, what did our entry consist of. Well, you might have heard of TweetRoll, the Twitter widget we had created some time back. We’ve used the Sponsored Tweets API to add functionality to the widget to automatically detect if you’re signed up to Sponsored Tweets. If you are, the widget will display a special section that shows your price per tweet and invites viewers to the widget to purchase a Sponsored Tweet. The new functionality embedded itself really nicely into the existing plugin and the upgrade will be transparent to all users.
What the marriage of functionality really results in, is to give Tweeters a platform to monitise their Twitter stream and to use their online presence to do so. The widget itself is available as a line of JavaScript, a WordPress plugin or even a Widgetbox widget. You can see the new functionality running on the left hand side of this blog; just run your mouse over the “Sponsor a Tweet” link in the TweetRoll widget.
Is it good enough to win? Well, keep an eye on the competition page and we’ll know in a few days. In the meantime, you can read more on the TweetBurn blog: Making Money with TweetRoll
