Every year, or so, there’s a development in the social marketing world that really matters. Not just another announcement. Not just another company thumping its chest. But a development so important that it makes sense to focus, pay attention and figure out how to take advantage of it.

The first one I remember was in 2007, when Facebook launched its application development platform, allowing marketers to connect with customers in a whole new way. The smartest companies -- Starbucks, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Ford -- dove right in and are now the leaders in all social marketing.

The latest such development landed today with Twitter’s announcement that it would finally allow marketers to advertise at scale using powerful third-party buying and optimization systems.

And we're excited to launch today a new Social Ads Platform for Twitter using the new Twitter ads API. For the first time ever, marketers can now manage Twitter advertising at scale alongside all of their existing social marketing programs with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.  

Here's what Adam Bain, president of global revenue, Twitter, has to say about the news:

"As we built out Twitter’s ads API, we knew it would be important to work closely with our advertising partners to understand how to effectively scale their marketing campaigns. We are delighted to continue to build upon our long-standing relationship with salesforce.com, and bring campaign management into the same suite as their leading listening and engagement products."

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud is working closely with Twitter to help advertisers in all industries. We will help Twitter scale its ads business, by developing innovative new advertising products for their largest advertisers.

With the new Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Ads Platform for Twitter, brands and agencies will be able to:

• Build and execute real time Twitter advertising campaigns;
• Allow advertisers to more efficiently scale their campaigns on Twitter through innovative workflows; and  
• Improve ROI through creative, bid and targeting optimization. 

Our new Twitter ads API product joins existing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Certified Twitter Products for Analytics and Engagement, where we have access to the more than 400 million Tweets sent per day via access to the Twitter fire hose.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Ads Platform for Twitter is currently available in a closed beta.

I encourage you to read our full announcement here. And if you'd like to know even more, download our free eBook, “The Guide to Successful Twitter Ad Campaigns" or join me on a webinar, “How to Create Successful Twitter Ad Campaigns” on Thursday, 2/28 at 2pm ET.