What is the difference between a social share and an ad on Twitter?

A social share is an image and graphic that appears on Twitter when someone shares your form.

Campaigns and organizations fundraising on ActBlue can create custom social shares for their contribution forms. Here is an example of a social share on Twitter:

Twitter prohibits paid advertising for political content. Anyone can still share a link to political content (such as ActBlue contribution forms), but they cannot pay to promote it. Since social shares are not paid for or purchased by any campaign or political organization, they are not political ads, and Twitter permits them.

It’s helpful to note that ads on Twitter say “Promoted” in the bottom left corner. An ad on Twitter looks like this:

Unsure if you’re seeing an ad or a social share? You can search Twitter’s ad center.