After the recent redesign for user profiles, Twitter launches a new update dedicated to the business of mobile.  About two years after the launch of sponsored links in the timeline – the famous Promoted Tweets – the micro-blogging platform announces their deployment on mobile devices.

Twitter announced yesterday that it’s promoted products (promoted tweets, promoted trends and promoted accounts) will be available to users on Twitter’s own mobile applications on iPhone and Android platform.

The movement has been undertaken primarily for the large increase of mobile users, which constantly records tweet on their mobile devices. More and more mobile users tweet, follow and share photos and information, which means that marketers can better take advantage of Twitter’s booming mobile user base.

According to Twitter’s blog, “Today, we are taking an important next step in making our Promoted Products available to those users. This will help ensure that people see important Tweets from the brands they care about.”

The new update will include mainly on m.twitter.com and will have the following functionality:

• Ability to view the products with sponsored tweets that appear regularly within the timeline.
• Twitter ensures that the timeline will end only on relevant Promoted Tweets; however, it has ensured that you can reject the tweets from the timeline with a simple click.
• Sponsored accounts will appear in who to follow list.

The Twitter experience continues to grow, which shows how the platform listening to both its users and its advertisers in hopes of expanding its ecosystem to one that’s highly profitable.

Twitter’s Advertising Ecosystem

Today, social media platforms like Twitter are dramatically increasing in popularity as  marketing tools. By exploring the culture, language, religious views of a region, as well as web trends, companies are developing effective and successful online marketing strategies for highly targeted markets.

Promotional Tweets will now be even more noticeable to the tweeting community, across platforms and devices. The company’s advertising platform also uses a cost-per-click model just like Facebook’s, allowing advertisers to pay the company only when an advert is clicked, re-tweeted or a promotional link registered.

The company’s analytics tool is another step towards monetizing its platform. The tool provides website owners the statistics of impact of traffic from Twitter, as well as buttons for sharing.

Twitter’s other advertising partners are also launching useful Twitter add-ons for the business user. Oregon based start-up Chirpify launched its Twitter Commerce Platform, which turns tweets into transactions. The commerce platform allows several types of advertising for brands, be they sponsored tweets, sponsored trends or suggestions.

Groupon Mobile Users Continue to Grow

Despite Groupon’s projected loss in its first quarterly earnings as a public company, and the recent bad press on their services and IPO launch, the company is dedicated to growing their mobile reach.

The company says its mobile app, launched in March 2010, has appealed to more than 9 million users, accounting for a quarter of their sales in December, 2011. In addition, more than 12,000 businesses stil market their products on the company’s mobile app, enabling users to redeem vouchers and track purchases using an iOS or Android device.

“Groupon continues to change the way people shop locally,” Mihir Shah, vice president of mobile for Groupon, said in a statement. “As smartphone adoption increases and the capabilities of our mobile products evolve, we look forward to harnessing the power of mobile to make it even easier for merchants partners around the world to run and market their businesses effectively.”

Groupon’s app is currently available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices. The company is planning to roll out mobile service to more than 30 countries in the near future. Groupon recently expanded its partnership with Nokia to launch Groupon app experiences for Nokia phone platforms. It has also opened its 47^th outlet at Thailand.

Rise in Digital Marketing Interest

Small businesses continue to shift their focus towards digital and online media, with heavy interest in advertising and promotional tools for social media, video and search engine marketing.

According to data from the new Local Commerce Monitor report from BIA/Kelsey, a quarter of SMBs are targeting digital media to drive their businesses on social media. The report also says SMBs are planning to allocate 26 percent of their budget to digital and online media over the next 12 months.

“The LCM data show SMBs love the easy-to-use tools, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and self-serve advertising,” said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media, BIA/Kelsey. “Our analysis is that we are on the verge of a real revolution in marketing platforms that serve SMBs, in particular around digital presence.”

The latest Local Commerce Monitor report figures that about half of the small businesses are willing to buy direct online advertising and plan to promote their products using social media and most prefer uploading products videos to YouTube.

“SMBs continue to get more focused and precise about how they use and analyze their advertising and marketing budgets,” said Steve Marshall, director of research, BIA/Kelsey. “We continue to see a powerful pattern in usage of digital/online media according to the age of the business. Younger businesses spend much more of their ad budgets on digital/online media than their older counterparts that spend more on traditional media.”