Twitter to start selling political ads

Twitter will start selling political ads this week, reports the Washington Post.

The ads, which will show up on your timeline as Promoted Tweets, especially of those users who follow a political campaign. 

Campaign members can also pay to appear on the top of search trends and to appear as a suggested tweep to follow. 

Twitter got into the advertising business last year. Commercial tweets will be marked with a orange arrow, and political tweets with a little purple check mark. Campaigns can also include a full FEC compliant disclaimer. 

Five campaigns have already signed up- including Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Adam Bain, president of global revenue at Twitter said in a statement that the compan wants to help people connect with issues and the candidates they care about. 

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said that @MittRomney is "constantly looking for ways to share his vision to turn around the economy." reports the Washington Post. 

DSCC spokesman Shripal Shah had some thoughts as well. The Washington Post reports: 

“We’re excited to continue leading the way in using new technologies to connect with our supporters,” said DSCC spokesman Shripal Shah. “Republicans have launched an all out war on seniors and middle-class families with their reckless agenda and we are going to hold them accountable in every way we can.”

Twitter plans to expand once its political sales teams is built- Peter Greenberger, who worked at Google for the past four years on political advertising has been hired by the company for this effort.

There are about 100 million twitter followers currently, and has become an important tool in political campaigns.

"In just five years, Twitter has become an essential communications platform for candidates, campaigns, elected officials and government bodies, " Bain said. "We believe that our platform will help foster a meaningful, real-time dialogue between citizens and campaigns during the 2012 elections," reports USA Today

President Obama has also been using twitter, he held a political town hall on twitter earlier in the year.