But, what about the 105 million consumers who use Twitter? Are they noticing those ads? Results from a consumer panel will likely someday shed light on that question. Until then, it's fair game to wonder how the ads are performing.

"I hope Twitter is doing research because I am definitely curious," said Ian Shafer, CEO of social media agency Deep Focus. "I am sure right now there is a big early adapter discount going on with that program because no one knows [exactly] what it does."

Schafer added that there is an inherent social media risk involved with the ad buys. He pointed to the example of a Promoted Trend campaign for the TV show "Hawthorne" by TNT in late June. As reported by social media blogger Alex Schleber, the Twitter account for the show's star Jada Pinkett-Smith was included in the campaign, although the account hadn't been updated for months. A stream of negative comments ensued about that particular oversight and about the TV show in general.

"You don't want to pay for negative commentary," Shafer said. "Because it is social media, people sometimes walk into it with cold feet. But at the end of the day, they ultimately are going to have to get comfortable because their brand is what people say it is - not what the brand thinks it is."

Twitter and advertisers have kept pricing information close to the vest. Many brands that have appeared on Promoted Trends have been movies like Disney's "Despicable Me" (image lower right) and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Sony's "The Social Network." Shafer said that associating one's brand with the hot topics of the day will likely continue to attract advertisers.

So Twitter Ads are about major brand advertising and not maybe not for the smaller business ....yet!