Despite the Twitter population giving a general thumbs down to sponsored and promoted tweets with claims that they’re too intrusive, Facebook is following a similar suit with its new Offers feature.

Twitter notified us this evening it is gradually rolling out to small businesses – a huge force in the world of social commerce, it turns out – a “self-serve advertising product” called Promoted Products for Small Business that delivers potential sales leads to SMEs active in the mobile and social space.

Now, brand pages are rolling out across the globe, allegedly to partners that have already committed to spending at least $25,000 on Twitter’s ad products, including promoted tweets and trends. There are rumours afoot that brand pages are set to evolve further, with the potential addition of ecommerce functionality (already dubbed ‘T-commerce’), and analytics.

The new Transformers film blew away the box office competition this weekend, bringing in $372 million around the globe, the third-biggest take ever for a summer blockbuster opening. It’s hard to know what part the barrage of #Transformers Tweets played in the success of TF3, but one thing is clear: the dark art of piggybacking on the success of a buzz-worthy Hollywood flick is alive and well.

Last week we looked at the novel way in which PayPal UK has recruited over 100,000 160,000 Facebook fans and another 11,000 Twitter followers in a matter of a few weeks simply by dangling the chance to win a free iPad 2 to anyone who clicks the “Like” button. We calculated the cost-per-acquisition for PayPal UK is pennies on the pound, a huge bargain when you consider what it costs to lure in new Twitter followers by paying for a targeted “Promoted Account” buy.

Promoted tweets aren’t just for big brands anymore, it’s now becoming clear. StylePage.com, a month-old Silicon Valley based start-up for all things fashion, tapped Twitter to build some launch buzz and pad its community membership as it aims to take on the top names in online fashion. A big challenge for vertical social networks like Stylepage is building a critical mass of users at the outset. Could Twitter get it off the ground?

AT&T tipped off a social media drive last week for the super-smartphone Motorola Atrix 4G amid heated speculation of rising phone bills and tone-deaf customer service thanks to its bid to buy out T-Mobile in the U.S. The Motorola Atrix 4G has its merits, reviewers say, but are the bells and whistles enough to distract the social masses from the widely panned T-Mobile merger?

Audi, the German luxury car brand, has directly merged old-school advertising with new media, making it the first company to feature a promoted Twitter hashtag in a Super Bowl commercial. While the pundits and public are still divided on the number one Super Bowl spot, we’ve sized up here the newest promoted tweet strategy. Beware. The results may surprise you.

That’s what we’re wondering today after carmaker Toyota started running a promoted Tweets campaign for its luxury brand, Lexus. On Wednesday, it announced the recall of 245,000 cars sold in the United States, the same day it started running a #Lexus hashtag campaign. The results? There’s not all that much chatter about the campaign, but there’s even less hubbub about the recall.

Nearly two months after its debut, Twitter’s “Promoted Account” marketing scheme has provided companies with newer ways of upping their follower numbers. But is investing in a place on the “Suggestions for you” listing worth it? We look at three brands who’ve taken the early plunge. If time has taught us anything about this new program it’s that money can’t buy you followers.