Twitter’s Holiday 1-2 Punch: Free Ads & Retail Impact Survey

With an IPO in its rearview mirror and the holiday season straight ahead, Twitter is making a big push to attract both retail shoppers and advertisers this week.

In conjunction with Small Business Saturday, Twitter is giving away up to $1 million in free ads. Advertisers will be able to use the credit for either the Promoted Accounts or Promoted Tweets product, and registration is required through the link earlier in this paragraph. The offer is only open for Twitter accounts with a US address that have never advertised on Twitter before.

Twitter also wants to position itself as a valuable retail resource for consumers.

A Twitter blog post today shares data from a recent study of 1,000 US adults — more than half of whom are regular Twitter users. (That stat alone makes the survey audience not representative of the general population.) Nonetheless, seven out of 10 respondents said they’ll use Twitter to enhance their Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping experiences.

The survey also suggests that Twitter users are a good target for online and offline merchants — 68 percent of Twitter users shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, compared to 54 percent of the general population.

With several weeks to go before the holidays, expect Twitter to continue making its case as a player on the consumer and advertiser side of holiday shopping.