Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets” ad platform has launched with a high-profile  partner in Virgin Airlines.

Twitter selected a few partners and approached them about advertising opportunities during the first phase of rollout for the new promotion platform. Among them, Virgin Airlines has a reputation for social-media and internet savvy that made them a good prospect as an initial partner.

The promotion for Virgin is highly focused on drawing the attention of consumers who would appreciate the unique features of Virgin, such as in-flight WiFi. In a move that Virgin America’s VP of Marketing described as not wishing to disrupt the follower relationship, the promoted tweets are linked to very specific and non-obvious keywords. The tweets are difficult to find for most, and consistent with the company’s pre-existing channels.

Virgin is promoting customer-to-customer interaction with a few discount codes, but mostly, to encourage tweeters to share what they are watching in-flight on the company’s entertainment system, and share pictures of “geek moments” in air.

While few details about the Promoted Tweets platform are available, Virgin is setting a tone for how the service should be used. High-quality, low-spam interactions specific to how users use an individual brand and engaging with customers individually will generate the kind of respect in online communities that people expect from friends, and now, through Twitter, brands as well.

Learn more about the Virgin/Twitter partnership at Mashable, or an overview of promoted tweets by Alan Parker.

Originally posted at Speaking Of Social Media.