Al Jazeera Aims to Harness Twitter Momentum

Al Jazeera is Twitter’s Promoted Trend advertiser today, as the Qatar-based cable channel attempts to rally support among Americans who want to see it more available in the United States. On Jan. 28, Twitter users drove traffic to Al Jazeera’s English-language coverage of Egypt’s protests – available online in the U.S. – as it received media attention and some praise for its live reporting.

What better place than Twitter to capitalize on that momentum? And what better day to state your case than Egypt’s highly newsworthy “Day of Departure,” which may see longtime Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak step down in a historic moment?

Al Jazeera’s Promoted Trend copy simply uses the hashtag, #DemandAlJazeera, while pointing to a landing page with the following Promoted Tweet: “Like our coverage from #Egypt? Think we should be shown on US TV? It’s time to #DemandAlJazeera http://aje.me/demandAJ“.

That worldwide buy reportedly costs $100,000 per day, appearing in the “Trends” column on the site. National advertisers like Audi, McDonald’s, American Express, HP, Starbucks, Mercedes-Benz, and several Hollywood movie brands have tested the buy.

AlJazeera.com is also running a house ad for the “Demand Al Jazeera” effort. Viewers can enter their zip code and hit a “Submit” button. However, it’s unclear what message is sent and to whom after tapping that button. The site is also pushing a “meetup” that encourages U.S. citizens to get together on Feb. 10 to organize ways of petitioning their local cable or satellite TV providers.

Al Jazeera did not respond to an interview request by ClickZ this morning.

According to a HuffingtonPost report, the cable channel’s website saw a 2,500 percent increase in traffic in the days after its coverage in Egypt went viral on social sites like Twitter. Al Jazeera English is only available as a cable TV channel in Washington, D.C. and parts of Ohio and Vermont.