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"Twitter offers a large target for marketers hoping to drive home a specific message \u2014 and its accuracy is improving. \nA new tool offered through Twitter's API, which Twitter calls Tweet Delivery by Country, allows marketers to send targeted tweets to specific geographic locations. For example, a brand could send a tweet to followers in the United States and a separate tweet to users in Japan from the same account. The tweets will not show up to followers in the brand's Twitter timeline unless those followers reside in the country targeted. \nSee also: 25 Twitter Accounts to Make You Laugh\nThis capability makes it possible for brands to consolidate their Twitter accounts, eliminating the need for different accounts for various countries or languages. It also lets brand target messages more directly to consumers by sending offers or promotions to followers in a specific region or create customized content for a specific country. \nWith roughly 77% of Twitter's monthly active users located outside of the U.S., the ability for brands to connect with international users will be key to helping Twitter continually grow its advertising revenue moving forward.\nThe ability to geo-target messages is available to partners with access to Twitter's Ads API, which was updated a few weeks ago. London-based TBG, a social media ad management company, first rolled out a country-specific tweeting tool on Oct. 4, although its customers aren't utilizing the feature yet, according to a spokesperson. \nLast week, Austin-based Spredfast, which offers tools that allow clients to better manage multiple social media accounts, became the first U.S.-based company to offer geo-targeted tweets. \n\"We think this is just the start,\" said Jim Rudden, CMO of Spredfast. \"The whole focus is on, 'How do we get relevance in the news feed?' The more targeted you can get, the better.\" \nFor brands, the benefit is minimizing the number of social accounts to manage, creating a more direct funnel for consumer feedback. Brands would no longer need to manage or monitor regional Twitter handles; all messaging would come from the same account, so all feedback, comments or complaints would be directed to the same place.\nHowever, compacting a brand's Twitter handles also means consolidating a brand's current followers and convincing users to follow a different Twitter handle (the brand's main one).\nTBG hopes brands will be willing to look past this issue, even if the process of shifting to a single account takes six months to a year. \n\"[One handle] is more efficient and it makes it easier for users to find you,\" said Ian Cassidy, TBG's executive creative director, in a statement to Mashable. \"It also means that brands that have a global Twitter account can test localized, more specific messaging in different countries, which should increase engagement.\u201D\nAs brands start to test out this new technology in the coming months, we'll find out exactly how specific those messages can get. \nUpdate: Oct. 23, 7:45 p.m. ET \u2014 A Twitter spokesman clarified that Salesforce actually had a similar targeted tweet tool available in 2012. Salesforce had received early access to an alpha version of Twitter's ads API. \nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\nImage: Mashable composite; Flickr, Kevin M. Gill \n\n\n10 Tweets That Rocked the Twitter-verse\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Hudson Plane Landing\nWhen a commercial flight was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River, Twitter -- with the help of image service Twitpic -- told the story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKenneth Cole's #Cairo Blunder\nDuring a rash of riots in the Middle East and North Africa, Twitter played a role in protesters' fight for democracy. But a crass tweet from Kenneth Cole stands out as a hallmark of insensitivity.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBieber Tweets \"His\" Digits\nIn what was called \"kind of a jerk move,\" teen idol Justin Bieber tweeted the phone number of an invasive fan as if it were his own. Said fan's phone was ringing off the hook for hours and received at least 26,000 text messages.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMarriage Proposal\nSocial media proposals are a whole thing unto themselves these days, but the trend probably started with this sweet tweet.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIce: The Final Frontier\nTweets from space are all the rage. The landmark discovery of ice on Mars caused quite the stir on Twitter.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"Arrested\"\nThis single-word tweet ended up being a lifesaver for UC Berkeley journalism student James Buck.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJack's First Tweet ...\nTwitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet -- the inauspicious blurb that started it all back in 2006.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n... and Oprah's First Tweet\nWhen the talk show host discussed Twitter with Biz Stone and Ev Williams, she brought mainstream attention to a rather geek-centric web app. Twitter adoption spiked as a consequence.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTweets From Space: Now In Real-Time!\nThe first live and real-time tweet from space came from the International Space Station in early 2010.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Abbottabad Tweeter\nWithout knowing exactly what was going on, Twitter user @ReallyVirtual started tweeting about a helicopter crash in his town. The town happened to be Abbottabad, and the crash happened to be one event in the raid that led to Osama bin Laden's death.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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