If your business is online, chances are you’ve already invested some of your cold hard cash in online advertising. And, that can be a great way to get new leads, especially on the social networks where consumers are hanging out. One of the newest networks to the advertising game, Twitter, has over 284 million active users.

In some ways advertising on Twitter is a refreshing break from the constant algorithm changes on other social platforms such as Facebook, and presents less of a learning curve than Adwords. But, advertisers could be in for a slow start as the social network isn’t growing as quickly as expected.

Part of the problem is with the Twitter streams showing up on other sites and apps. Many of Twitter’s users (about 500 million) view their streams on apps that allow them to keep up with friends and followers without logging in. And, although consumers do still have to log in if they want to tweet a status update, this poses a problem for those who are paying to advertise their business on the popular social networking platform. The ads don’t show up on apps and thus, advertisers are missing out on a significant chunk of their audience.

In response, Twitter recently took action to begin serving advertisers’ promoted tweets on two Yahoo owned sites, Flipboard and Yahoo Japan in an effort to expand ad reach. This opens up a significant opportunity for many of the brands already advertising on Twitter as well as position the popular social networking site for even more growth in the future.