Twitter is expected to triple its advertising revenue this year according to a report from eMarketer.

The social networking site is expected to bring in $150 million in ad revenue this year, up from $45 million in 2010.

Last year, Twitter debuted ad services in the form of Promoted Tweets, Trends and Accounts.

Promoted Tweets allow for a brand to pay to appear in user feeds after a user searches a specific keyword. Promoted Trends take a paid-for trend and promotes it with other trends. Promoted Accounts highlight brands or companies for users to follow.

Twitter has a long way to go to reach storied heights of rival Facebook, which brought in $1.86 billion in ad dollars last year and could reach just over $4 billion this year, according to the eMarketer projections.

Meanwhile, eMarketer’s report does foresee Twitter overtaking Myspace for the number two slot by 2012.

Optimism about Twitter’s potential in advertising is further aided by studies that have shown only about 8% of American internet users currently use Twitter.

While Twitter is a pop culture phenomenon, there is obviously a lot of room to grow when it comes to the user base in the states. Any growth from that 8% would help bring more advertisers on board, one would imagine.

The same goes for ad revenue outside of the states, in which eMarketer penciled in a big fat zero for 2010. Figuring there is no other way to go but up, They projected $11 million in ad dollars to be brought in from non-U.S. advertisers.

If Twitter can grow in those areas and get something out of its self-serve ad platform this year, then Twitter should have no problem meeting or exceeding these great expectations.

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