It won't be the end. I, for one, will unfollow anyone who tweets ads. Because that, to me, is spam.
Hugh Briss
· 4 months ago
Stupid title for this article. I guess it's an attempt at sensationalizing but why is it that every time someone writes something about some new service on Twitter they wonder if it spells the end of Twitter? lmao
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
Kinda like this article: http://mashable.com/2009/07/31/twitter-rape-case/ where they say that the story is being sensationalized but Twitter really didn't have anythign to do with it...and yet they titled the article "Twitter Rape Case".
beepbeepsean
· 4 months ago
FTA: "...it’s clear the media has already branded the story as the “Twitter rape” (see ABC, CBS, FoxReno), Twitter’s role is incidental here..."
did you read the article? i think the title was appropriate, seeing as Cashmore clarified that the title came from other media sources and was (actually) inapposite.
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
Yes I read the article. That's how I knew that Twitter didn't have ANYTHING to do with the rape. If I would have just read the title or the url I wouldn't have known that because it's very misleading.
Jennifer Van Grove
· 4 months ago
Correction. The title isn't on the end of Twitter, but the end of Twitter as we know it. Should Sponsored Tweets see success - and their platform is a good, albeit controversial, offering - more and more sponsored tweets will be in our streams, making Twitter just an advertising channel. It's a fair question to ask and one that we can/should think about.
Charles Desaulniers
· 4 months ago
Has to be the worst idea ever. There's already too much spam on twiter and it will naturally gets worse and worse. I wish Twitter would actually take a stance on this.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
Our goal is to actually lessen the frequency of sponsored tweets and increase the quality. We believe that transparency of identity is key. Spam is generated from bots and worthless Twitter accounts. Real people with real followers don't create spam.
mayhemstudios
· 4 months ago
So what is a different between Spam generated from bots and Spam generated by Real people? I don't need advertising thrown in my face in my stream. I will think twice about their value, credibility or retweeting their tweets. Twitter is about about helping, connection. Looks like I will be unfollowing people.
mascarah
· 4 months ago
@tedmurphy - Quality? What? Izea doesn't exactly have a track record for 'great companies.' I know a girl who has worked with you guys and her last 2 include Armani Exchange (known for breaking labor laws out the ying yang and far from reputable) and Sea World (animal abuse! paging PETA!). Are those really quality brands? Sounds like a load of b.s. to me.
Hugh Briss
· 4 months ago
Ted, you're reaching with that one. Since when is spam generated by bots and not real people? Bots are used to disseminate the spam but real people generate it.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
To clarify : People write spam. People then use impersonal, low value mechanisms in high volume to deliver said spam.
Our platform is just the opposite. Low volume. High value. Worthy products, services and websites.
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
@ted
OH, well as long as it's high value, low volume spam then that's fine!!! Puhlease. Spam is spam. And if you're paid to say it then you don't mean it and if you do mean it you can't prove it because you're getting paid for it so you'd say it anyway.
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
Explain to me how you lessen the frequency of sponsored tweets by creating a website FOR SPONSORED TWEETS. You can use all the semantics you want to try to twist this idea into something people will go for, but we're smarter than that. We don't want ads, period.
Dare
· 2 months ago
So Techcrunch ads = spam. Google Adsense = Spam. I'm sure you ain't making lots of money with this kind of thinking.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
Fascinating to me Ted, how IZEA and TweetROI are taking very different approaches to bidding and Twitterer filtering. In IST (IZEA Sponsored Tweets), Twitterers set the price first- whereas in TweetROI, marketers bid first. Our UserRank system I think will do better to scale for larger reach while maintaining influence/cost, preventing spam, and reducing campaign admin time. But it will be interesting to see how it plays out :-)
amnigos
· 4 months ago
No Ted, money motivates people to create spam, don't you think?
Mark
· 4 months ago
i tried conversing with @izea before, but to no avail...do you engage in conversations only if someone is paying you?
Rich_Weaver
· 4 months ago
Absolutely correct sir. I on the other hand like spam, esp fried!
journik
· 4 months ago
@ted,
"I'll unfollow anyone who tweets ads." - benjamin dobson.
ME: No you wont. focus groups are worthless. 99.999% of the people who say they WOULD do something DONT. You really don't know yourself as well as you think you do. Nobody will unfollow anybody they like. Did you dump your dream girl the moment you realized she had one habit that you previously considered nonnegotiable...? NO. relationships, even twelationship have a ... ugh... I'm gunna blog my answer... brb..
Its not something I would be interested in doing on my personal account but I reckon we have to find some method of injecting finance and economics into social media and of course sponsored tweets is probably just the first means of doing this. At least its obligatory that they have a hashtag.
One positive is that business may begin to take social media as a whole more seriously but I fear for the lasting effects and how it may prove to alienate more away rather than attract them to the medium.
Brandon Eley
· 4 months ago
Paid content is here to stay. There are tons of people selling tweets, reviewing products for money, etc. I'm happy for platforms that promote transparency and disclosure. If you don't want to participate and market on Twitter, that's fine... but to say that sponsored tweets will somehow devalue Twitter is ridiculous.
I think the mass numbers of "experts" that are flocking to Twitter looking to teach people how to "retire young" and build "extra income" are much more dangerous to the future of Twitter than legitimate advertisers looking to build their brand or promote products/services through legitimate channels such as this.
Brandon Eley
· 4 months ago
Paid content is here to stay. There are tons of people selling tweets, reviewing products for money, etc. I'm happy for platforms that promote transparency and disclosure. If you don't want to participate and market on Twitter, that's fine... but to say that sponsored tweets will somehow devalue Twitter is ridiculous.
I think the mass numbers of "experts" that are flocking to Twitter looking to teach people how to "retire young" and build "extra income" are much more dangerous to the future of Twitter than legitimate advertisers looking to build their brand or promote products/services through legitimate channels such as this.
beley
· 4 months ago
Paid content is here to stay. There are tons of people selling tweets, reviewing products for money, etc. I'm happy for platforms that promote transparency and disclosure. If you don't want to participate and market on Twitter, that's fine... but to say that sponsored tweets will somehow devalue Twitter is ridiculous.
I think the mass numbers of "experts" that are flocking to Twitter looking to teach people how to "retire young" and build "extra income" are much more dangerous to the future of Twitter than legitimate advertisers looking to build their brand or promote products/services through legitimate channels such as this.
charlesneville
· 4 months ago
Important to consider here is that all of us commenting on this article are inside the fishbowl - we're discussing social media via social media. Remember that there are millions of people on Twitter whose conversations doesn't revolve around social media and the right or wrong way to use it at all. For every one of us there are thousands of regular people.
We need to stop thinking of Twitter as 'ours' and instead realise that it's for 'normal' people too. If they're finding value following someone on Twitter, I doubt they'll mind the odd sponsored tweet - if the brand being promoted fits with a celebrity profile I don't see why a sponsored tweet is such a bad thing.
Christopher S. Rollyson
· 4 months ago
I haven't seen sponsored ads in my streams, so I can't judge how this will affect me; however, spam is like porn, we all know it when we see it. The key here is how personal the endorsers make their tweets. My bet is they will only make money by being superficial and pumping numbers, which will cause this initiative to fail among many Twitter members, including me. If someone endorses something out of excitement to me and others in his/her stream, that's great. When people are paid, their cred suffers. Most companies don't understand that social networks are about authentic relationships and trust. Money follows trust. Trying to "monetize" networks can work under some conditions. Most people I know won't put up with this because they are interested in sharing thoughts and ideas. Many of us have tuned out MSM, and this sounds like a MSM interruptive tactic. Even the celeb endorsers pictured above look like late night car shillers or plasticine infomercial mannequins, doesn't bode well for folks I know. That said, I'll decide on a case by case basis when I start seeing sponsored ads.
David Spinks
· 4 months ago
I understand that it's not all based on followers, but that seems to be the idea that the service gives off...and that's a huge problem. People already have the misconception that more followers as fast as possible is the way to use twitter. This will only increase this misconception.
True, you get to choose who you tweet about, but won't you be tempted to tweet about the companies that offer you the best deal? I definitely see the allure of a service like this and that's what scares me. People like to make money, and for the people that have devoted a lot of time on twitter, this is a way for them to get some return...especially for those that have been questioning whether their time on twitter has been well spent.
The difference between Mashable thanking their sponsors and sponsoredtweets.com is that Mashable isn't claiming that their sponsors have any value, they're just thanking their sponsors for their contribution. On sponsoredtweets, tweeters claim that the company they're promoting has value, and that's where the issue lies.
@DavidSpinks
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
I would unfollow anyone who does this. I am a person who wants to read what REAL people say, not what they are paid to say. I am not a dump waiting to be filled with everyone's stupid ads trying to get me to buy something. That's like getting cable and recording all the commercials. I skip that crap for a reason.
Lauren
· 4 months ago
I hate it. Takes away from the dynamic and grassroots conversation that is at the heart of Twitter.
beepbeepsean
· 4 months ago
like'd for your use of the word "grassroots".
Joshua Wulf
· 4 months ago
I will also delete anyone who tweets ads. It will completely diminish the value of their true opinions and recommendations so there is no point in following them.
mascarah
· 4 months ago
Also re: transparency. The bloggers I've seen of yours typically only disclose it in the first post and don't disclose it in any follow ups. The problem with this is clear - if only one post gets picked up by other bloggers or anything in the inter webs then it doesn't have the disclosure and is out of context and therefor non-transparent. A Retweet would do the same.
ModelSupplies
· 4 months ago
The tag would still be in a RT.
Anon
· 4 months ago
Yet another form of spam... I can see a massive increase of blocking action in the near future.
tomewing
· 4 months ago
Unfollowing is one way for armchair Adbusters to deal with this, but it punishes the user. Hijacking the hashtag to distort or deny the desired message is a neater, more enjoyable and more entertaining solution.
astroengine
· 4 months ago
Twitter has an intolerance for any profit-making tweets, whether a bot or a person tweets ads. If tweet ads get annoying and keep appearing, users will get unfollowed, so I'm not sure how this differs from previous monetization attempts.
Rob Miracle
· 4 months ago
Is it just me, or has it been nice to have a relatively ad free place? You can't watch any sports or tv program with out ads every where. I know we all need to make money, but its nice to have a place where someone isn't constantly hawking something.
Alas
Justin Kownacki
· 4 months ago
From a purist's POV, I find this appalling -- and, like everyone above, I would unfollow ad-spammers on principle.
From a businessman's POV, I find this alluring. Being relevant on a daily basis is hard work, so would anyone's followers begrudge them the opportunity to earn some money on Twitter, to offset the investment of time and effort required to bring value to their followers?
And if we reach a point where people can subconsciously ignore Twitter ads with the same indifference we already apply to every other form of advertising, won't this be a moot point?
But yes, at heart, I'm a purist, and I see no value in this from a Twitter reader's standpoint.
Justin Parks
· 4 months ago
Aside from having a really cool name Justin, :P I think you have hit the nail on the head quite nicely with this comment and summed it up perfectly from both perspectives.
Justin Kownacki
· 4 months ago
Thanks! I can't take credit for my name, but the sterling logic is entirely mine... Nonetheless, I think reducing this issue (or anything else) to an "either-or" case is too narrow; everyone uses tools like Twitter differently, and what works for one end might not work on the other.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
I don't think all of this is ad-spam. You can recommend something you actually like... and get paid. That's not spam. It's incentivized word of mouth. Money does not automatically make all people inauthentic. And yeah I guess your name is sorta cool. lol
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
Yeah and you tend to "actually like" a lot more things once you start getting paid to like them.
Benjamin Dobson
· 4 months ago
Money does not automatically make all people inauthentic.
Very true. But it sure helps.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
lol this article has gathered together some of todays top cynics, quite an accomplishment! (yes that's sarcasm, said jokingly) :-)
kissmykitty
· 4 months ago
The way I look at it, there's going to be advertising in the blogosphere and Twittersphere whether there's a company behind it or not. At least companies like Social Spark and Sponsored Tweets are focusing on and emphasizing transparency and disclosure.
Cody Gibbs
· 4 months ago
I agree, are you guys so surprised this is happening? The truth is there is a ton of advertising already out there (as Ted pointed out with Mashable) that streams through every day. It's already on Twitter and has been there since the beginning. This is just organizing it and (hopefully) regulating it. I don't see a huge problem with this unless a bunch of people jump on the bandwagon in which case they will get unfollowed just like all the other spammers and affiliates. Don't get your undies in a bundle.
kissmykitty
· 4 months ago
"This is just organizing it and (hopefully) regulating it." My thoughts exactly. And I too don't see a huge problem... just as spammer Twitter accounts are unfollowed and often blocked, the same will surely happen with those "legit" Twitter users that go overboard with sponsored tweets. Hopefully, most Twitter users who join Sponsored Tweets will be considerate of their followers and be selective with what they tweet and how often they tweet.
James F.
· 4 months ago
I agree with Benjamin. The moment someone begins to get spammy, I will unfollow. I even go through and block out any of those porn accounts trying for me to follow back.
Too early to comment it as twitter's end... lets see how people react
Holly Kolman
· 4 months ago
It's a good idea in theory, but in practice this is a tricky subject. It's enticing to want to be paid for tweets, but Magpie tried this and alienated a lot of people and led to many, many unfollows. It gets ridiculous after a short while - so many people tweet the same ad with a hashtag and it clutters up the stream. I hope this new program will limit the number of messages that go out at any time period.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
The messages in our platform are unique, the Tweeter can write them. You should take a look at the advertiser section of our site.
cj flex
· 4 months ago
ted - I think you need a new avatar. You look like a yelling infomercial guy and it's not doing much to dispel my suspicions that your service is spam. I think your avatar is the personification of spam. :) new avatar, then let's talk.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
Sorry, the avatar is part of my identity.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
It makes it easier for acupuncturists to remotely diagnose him.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
Holly, TweetROI allows personalized tweets, and magpie allows this now too. And so does IZEA... not sure about RevTwt. But that's industry standard now. But anyway, how are retweets any different? They are often the same message cluttering up the stream, no?
Chelsea
· 4 months ago
i'm with Benjamin, too. i'm unfollowing whoever starts tweeting ads.
Sponsored Tweets are all over the place. So long as they are disclosed and done the right way there is nothing wrong with them.
Hugh Briss
· 4 months ago
I bet Mashable is real happy with you suggesting that we unfollow them even though the analogy is weak as Chinese tea. Thanking their sponsors with a public tweet is hardly the same thing as promoting one of their sponsors.
Wan-Qi Kim, Investor
· 4 months ago
Guys, guys, guys. The REAL problem here is that Hugh thinks Chinese tea is weak. Let's not miss the crux of this issue. Even "ENGLISH Breakfast" was IMPORTED by marco (ducks under water) POLO... from where? Chi, Nah! That's right. Chi... oh wait. ... I'm Korean. Never mind.
Danny Brown
· 4 months ago
There's a massive difference. Mashable weren't paid to say thank you - IZEA pays Twitter users to say "thank you" via a sponsored tweet, if you want to keep analogies going.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
I am not sure how that is at all different.
Jennifer Van Grove
· 4 months ago
Ted, though I appreciate what you're trying to accomplish with the analogy. They are, in fact, quite different. (Thanks Benjamin and Hugh for chiming in too).
Benjamin Dobson
· 4 months ago
That's not the same thing at all. That's part of Mashable's RSS feed, which is posted automagically to the Twitter account. It's something we "signed up for" when we followed @mashable (if we did).
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
So you clicked a box that said "sign me up for sponsored posts?" I must have missed that.
Have you asked yourself why "thank our sponsor" posts are included in the RSS feed or even posted on the site to begin with?
I am not saying it's wrong, I like what mashable does and how they do it. I wouldn't personally unfollow them because of it. I am just saying a sponsored tweet is sponsored no matter how you cut it.
Chelsea
· 4 months ago
i'm with Benjamin, too. i'm unfollowing whoever starts tweeting ads.
Gráinne
· 4 months ago
I'll just unfollow them. Already cut someone because she was one of those Fiesta test drive people. The endless tweets about how wonderful it was were just painful.... It's only worrying if they're sneaky about it and it is allowed to seem like a genuine comment.
Stephanie Smirnov
· 4 months ago
I have a visceral "I can't stand this" reaction that I'm trying to dissect objectively. On a personal level, I guess I fear the influx of sponsored tweets in my stream (which I imagine will be just one notch less annoying than tweet-scraping porn bots and SEO spammers). Professionally, I worry that my clients (I'm in PR) are going to get talked into this by their other partner agencies (digital, WOM, advertising)and make messes that we're going to have to clean up. As for celebrities being a selling point, I can't imagine what celebrity of any real stature would ever sign up for this? It takes brand shilling to a whole new low.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
I actually conceived TweetROI as an answer to small and mid-sized businesses struggling with how to achieve their objectives in social media. All you need to do is try to train 5 or 6 of them on how to use Twitter for business, see where they're at in 3 months, and you'll understand.
mick mclaughlin
· 4 months ago
first of all I have no idea who those celebs are... secondly, it doesn't seem all that hard to automate a script that targets tweets to particular #hashtags, i.e target audience. I had an email autoresponder service back in 2000-2003 that let users sign up and create their campaigns, decide when and where to send the messages... Something like that could easily be made to use the twitter api... Death to the developer that actually brings something like this to life. Theres enough spam on twitter already, we certainly do not need anymore.
hp88
· 4 months ago
Whoever had this idea has rocks in their head.
It will fail as it goes against everything genuine participants in Twitter (ie the advertiser's target market) believe the site is about. By that I mean genuine interraction. I block anyone who is advertising something at me in their tweets, UNLESS it is their own business and I chose to follow them knowing that they will self-promote.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
OMG @tedmurphy we have rocks in our heads! noooooooo!!!!! lol
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
You forgot to plug your site like you did in all your other comments.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
oh you're right! TweetROI. There. Are you happy now? LOL :-)
hp88
· 4 months ago
It's an Aussie expression and meant in a "caring" way ; )
Stuart Foster
· 4 months ago
I'm just not sure if this format works within Twitter. Disclosures or not...
Just seems to spammy when the pitch is restricted to a limited amount of characters. I'm fine with sponsored blog posts...because that allows for someone's true thoughts to be heard in more detail.
Erik Nobs
· 4 months ago
I don't believe we are going to see an end to twitter with the "pay per tweet" setup. But for a majority of the people I am connected up with and with the clients I serve, I know they will un-follow anything that may appear to be spam. One of the great values about twitter is that we subscribe to the information we want from the people we want it from. If one of my friend's or an organization I currently follow begins tweeting and I am receiving their updates, I very well may un-follow for the mere fact I don't want to waste my time with reading an advertisement. I think you will see follow counts fall for those who advertise too much.
Twitter is a clean community in my mind currently. Unbiased communication for the most part. You subscribe to @jetbluecheeps because you want an advertisement, when the people you are not expecting to send you advertisements do...that is something to consider.
I am no necessarily for of against this use of sponsored tweet. It does change the game, but we do live in a place where we capitalize on the use of communication to the masses as quickly as possible because that is how many of us make money.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
Very prescient, Erik :-) Twitterers can control whether you see ads by unfollowing. But if someone you like recommends something and gets paid for it, you might like them enough to consider it. TweetROI uses UserRanks that measure influence- if a Twitterer loses followers by spamming, they will make less money and possibly not even see campaigns. If you spam, you lose influence, and then you can't make money tweeting.
KitCameo
· 4 months ago
I can't see anyone who already has a reputable account doing this. There are a lot of people out there who need the money nowadays, though. My guess is we're going to see real people creating secondary accounts and filling their follower list fast so that they have a chance to make money, but to still maintain their integrity on their main accounts.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
I've seen dozens of reputable quality twitterers do it with TweetROI. These are real twitterers who converse with real people, and who get retweeted.
Brent
· 4 months ago
The whole Pay Per Tweet model is flawed. You can buy 3,000 followers for $13, but does that mean your Twitter account is worth more then someone who has 300 followers in a particular niche and is engaging.
Also another flaw is that Twit's can just delete the sponsored ad from their Twitter stream right away. So as an advetiser you really do not know how many eye balls looked at that ad.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
1. I agree. It's not just about followers. 2. We check the stream to make sure it is not deleted.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
Brent, I do AdWords PPC a lot, so I understand your concern- ultimately it's about ROI- a PPC model for twitter marketing makes sense, but then you pay for the viral effects of RT's too- it's a trade off. Twitter marketing services like IZEA, TweetROI, RevTwt, etc. are still in their infancy. Geotargeting and context/semantic targeting is coming soon. So I believe it's not a flawed model, but a very young marketing channel.
TwitWalk
· 4 months ago
Twitter could always allow users the option to auto-block such tweets individually without unfollowing the offending Twitterer completely.
jlbraaten
· 4 months ago
Lol I had this idea like 6 months ago. I'm so glad I didn't choose to pursue it. I think used properly this could be a good service. Look at podcasts... they're sponsored. Would you be offended if the podcaster also tweeted out a message that was nice to their sponsor? I should hope not. A perfect example of this is This Week in Tech. There are audible mentions all over Twitter during that show as a direct result of them being a sponsor of TWiT. Good idea but I hope it's used responsibly.
Hugh Briss
· 4 months ago
How can you compare a podcaster that might be sponsored so the podcaster can afford a decent mic, mixing board and the hosting for his podcasts with someone using Twitter for free? I used to podcast and I had sponsors but I also had a lot of expenses in the production of those podcasts. So far, posting onTwitter has cost me $0.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
Except for your time. You don't really think that's worth nothing, do you?
Angoffwork
· 4 months ago
Do you charge your friends when you hang out with them? No? But, isn't your time worth anything??
Do you charge your family when you listen to their problems? Is your time worth nothing to you? Or maybe you just don't get paid for everything you say and do, you just do it for the enjoyment of doing it. Good grief.
ted murphy
· 4 months ago
Have you listened to talk radio lately? Another great example.
briancarter
· 4 months ago
Agreed- talk radio hosts are constantly selling sleep number beds etc. Maybe it's only because radio listeners can't talk back about it that there are no complaints, lol. One thing about social media people, they love to TALK. And some are so utopian that... well I'm not going to go there :-)
lawrence
· 4 months ago
worst. idea. ever.
I will gladly unfollow any twit-spammers that end up in my stream.
good luck with that.
Melinda
· 4 months ago
Yeah, this is going to sink like a stone.
Twiter Scripts
· 4 months ago
This is terrible I will never use it ever!
AlohaArleen
· 4 months ago
Aloha guys. I see I'm a bit late to the party of controversy surrounding Sponsored Tweets. Previously I'd always been against sponsored tweets. I don't like nor do I do link spam on Twitter. For my own experience Twitter is about meeting people and engaging in real conversations. I see many who say they are against Ted's program that "BLURT" five to ten times the links I do in a day of profuse tweeting! All those RTs are getting you ranking. But, you are allowing the ranking systems to govern how you tweet instead of engaging in real dialog. So kindly don't be so harsh on Ted.
Ted's program is specifically designed for 3 objectives: 1) Allow genuine tweeters to be paid for that which they honestly endorse. 2) Give advertisers a professional outlet for some amazing ROI, which they desperately need in these lean times. 3) PREVENTS spam! Sponsored Tweets isn't about link blurting or constant hammering of URLs. It's about authentic and transpararent endorsements made surrounding discussions.
Marketing is all over Twitter. It's high time we had some quality professional marketing done on it that has the community interests at heart. I know lots of "Big" names in Social Media who are saying they don't like this, meanwhile, they get paid for sponsorships... go figure!
So, let's do it right and keep the spam out. Ted Murphy, my friend, you have the right idea and my support.
I challenge anyone to say I am on Twitter to link spam or not engage. I constantly recommend and share my experiences about all kinds of things all the time. If I'm going to be paid for it, I'll let you know in that tweet. And it will be something that I personally endorse.
Aloha guys. I see I'm a bit late to the party of controversy surrounding Sponsored Tweets. Previously I'd always been against sponsored tweets. I don't like nor do I do link spam on Twitter. For my own experience Twitter is about meeting people and engaging in real conversations. I see many who say they are against Ted's program that "BLURT" five to ten times the links I do in a day of profuse tweeting! All those RTs are getting you ranking. But, you are allowing the ranking systems to govern how you tweet instead of engaging in real dialog. So kindly don't be so harsh on Ted.
Ted's program is specifically designed for 3 objectives: 1) Allow genuine tweeters to be paid for that which they honestly endorse. 2) Give advertisers a professional outlet for some amazing ROI, which they desperately need in these lean times. 3) PREVENTS spam! Sponsored Tweets isn't about link blurting or constant hammering of URLs. It's about authentic and transpararent endorsements made surrounding discussions.
Marketing is all over Twitter. It's high time we had some quality professional marketing done on it that has the community interests at heart. I know lots of "Big" names in Social Media who are saying they don't like this, meanwhile, they get paid for sponsorships... go figure!
So, let's do it right and keep the spam out. Ted Murphy, my friend, you have the right idea and my support.
I challenge anyone to say I am on Twitter to link spam or not engage. I constantly recommend and share my experiences about all kinds of things all the time. If I'm going to be paid for it, I'll let you know in that tweet. And it will be something that I personally endorse.
A real concern. With or without sponsored tweets, Twitter is always at risk to be used as a broadcasting channel for brands, and I think sponsored tweets is not the right way to go. If you are a business you should use Twitter to embrace your customers, give them support, position your brand or even generate sales as Dell does, but don´t use it as a broadcast channel, don´t place ads, don´t spam, because you´re going to loose your audience. Just join the conversation, commercials benefits will come if you do this right first.
Andy
· 4 months ago
We continue to believe that we have the strongest offering when it comes to advertising in-stream on Twitter, not to mention the most value. The amount that IZEA is charging for these ads are totally ridiculous, and not practical.
For a better value, better karma, and an overall better experience, checkout our offering at http://adcause.com
This is why we don't want sponsored tweets. We have people like you plastering their crap all over the place. You don't really think IZEA has bad prices, you just try to plant that seed in people's heads so we'll check out your site. If you start paying people to do this, it'll only be worse.
Cooki
· 4 months ago
sort of like the old market research or focus groups that paid cash, except thru tweeting? Did I get that right? Cing-love
David Spinks
· 4 months ago
Sorry for double comment. Delete?
Jonathan
· 4 months ago
I think it's an interesting idea - build a business around another business that is already actively seeking to find a way to monetize itself. Can't wait to see the backlash when Twitter turn their attention to just disabling payola tweets from Izea/Magpie/TweetROI etc. They've already been doing it with the spammers, and with their own revenue generating model just around the corner I'd be pretty worried if I was an investor in izea right now.
espreson
· 4 months ago
As like PPP, Sponsored Tweets will face critics red-face a bit. Gradually it will decrease.
Christina Woodward
· 4 months ago
This is not the direction I'd like to see Twitter take. Funny how it always seems to come down to profits, not so much funny as sad....
kaz
· 4 months ago
I'd love to lick your anus Jen,
suetodd
· 4 months ago
So why if Twitter has to make money, which all business does, can it not be twitter that makes the dosh and perhaps by putting adds in the interface (linked to current chat on your twitter stream) like Google does? That way you can ignore them or not and they don't take up your twitter stream?
I'm with the others I'll be all a unfollowing the spammers. Its a royal pain in the posterior.
nicolaes
· 4 months ago
Don't mind who uses Twitter or how they use it. The audience will shift and change. If there's a constant stream of advertising the audience will shift. You can apply this to any social situation. If a group are discussing together in a space and someone comes in to disrupt the conversation. Some will challenge the disruption, some will ignore / filter, some will join in and some will leave.
Jim Connolly
· 4 months ago
Has anyone else spotted the problem with this?
The only people who will sign-up to have these posts sent via their account; are the kind of people less likely to encourage clicks.
It's also possible that brands could be tarnished, simply by aligning themselves with something that Twitter users are NOT asking for.
beepbeepsean
· 4 months ago
no one has said anything about trending topics! i'm not worried about it ruining twitter; as has been said multiple times (Dr Ian O'Neill, Justin Kownacki, et al.), i feel comfortable saying that nothing* will drastically change.
*except trending topics!? i don't want to look at what's happening (trending) and always see a hashtag, that is supposed to distinguish ads from regular tweets, on the list.
otherwise, i think everything has been said. i expect it will play out to be a valid attempt at mass social media marketing, but ultimately turn out as a minor "twitter scare", if you will.
Allen MacCannell
· 4 months ago
Very very smart for the players to be engaging in the discussion here.
Americanlisted.com
· 4 months ago
How hard is it? Just block twetters with ads...
nwjerseyliz
· 4 months ago
I hate spam. But regarding pay-per-Tweet, for me, it would depend on 1) the content, 2) the frequency of ads, and 3) the person tweeting. Spam is relentless, every Tweet providing the same link to the same service/product like teeth whitener or "sexxxy pictures!" But if, for example, a person I follow posts one Tweet ad a day (or one a week!) for Starbucks or Pepsi or a charity, I wouldn't object.
But if their Tweetstream was primarily paid ads, that would be different or if they were for sleazy/suspect products or services, I would unfollow. And ANY "get more followers" posts lead to automatic unfollowing!
At least for me though, it really depends on the message, the sender and the frequency of the ads. But everyone will have a different threshold of tolerance.
nwjerseyliz
· 4 months ago
Just a question: Are sponsored Tweets the same, better or worse than people sending out hashtagged messages (i.e. #moonfruit) to win contests or a laptop computer? Did people unfollow those folk as well? I'm just curious because those contest Tweets seem even more like spam.
It is just an interface that makes things clearer.
Nowadays many tweets are already sponsored, and you can clearly identify them. This isn't gonna change things as much.
This80sGirl
· 4 months ago
I'm a reasonable person and I always read things carefully, think about them, and then read them again... After doing so, I'd like to say... THIS IS BULLCR@P and I will un-follow anyone who starts sending me paid tweets / reviews / spam. No thanks. I'm still new to Twitter and I like it just the way it is thank you. If something's not broke, don't fix it! Duh!
Debbie S...
· 4 months ago
I'm a reasonable person. I don't jump to conclusions. I usually read something, think about it, then read it again.... After doing so, I'd like to say: This is BS and I will un-follow anyone who sends me a paid tweet/ ad/ review/ spam. I like Twitter just the way it is thank you. I remember when I was on Yahoo Groups. It was a happy busy place. E-groups came in and merged w/ Yahoo. They changed everything around and added sponsored links, even though it was VERY popular the way it was and it had been making Yahoo a ton of $. Everyone left within a few months. I rest my case.
Debbie S...
· 4 months ago
sorry didnt mean to post my message again ;)
Monik Pamecha
· 4 months ago
People on twitter look for "Personal Updates" and not ads for them to click on.
MLDina
· 4 months ago
Ted you've got quite the rockstar lineup for sponsored tweets, looking forward to seeing how it works out! I think of it like TV commercials, you know Holly Madison endorses __ brand shampoo because she's in the commercial- same with Twitter. The sponsorees/ endorsers aren't blindly supporting products, they can select what they'd like to support.
MLDina
· 4 months ago
Ted you've got quite the rockstar lineup for sponsored tweets, looking forward to seeing how it works out! I think of it like TV commercials, you know Holly Madison endorses __ brand shampoo because she's in the commercial- same with Twitter. The sponsorees/ endorsers aren't blindly supporting products, they can select what they'd like to support.
alphanaliste
· 4 months ago
I think it's a fabulous service that will help me identify which people to unfollow next.
I've been wondering how I was going to decide who to eliminate from my timeline.
Thanks, IZEA!!!! I can't wait to try it out!!!
Keith Gerr
· 4 months ago
paid tweet = spam
mikewb
· 4 months ago
Twitter needs to ban this practice immediately! This is the cancer of social networks.
dredman
· 4 months ago
To all of the many people who vow to unfollow anyone who participates with sponsored tweets:
1. Please also unsubscribe to every TV channel 2. Don't ever turn on your radio 3. Wear blinders over your eyes when you drive to work and walk the streets 4. Use ad-blockers and delete your cookies daily 5. Do not purchase any products endorsed by a celebrity 6. Do not open your mail or email
Remember that the INTERNET IS FREE and it is a privilege to have all of the great resources at our finger tips that we do. There is no birth right to have the internet when and wherever you please. Everything comes with a price. To have such a diverse wealth of quality content online, for all to use, concessions have to be made. To keep the internet interesting and progressive, monetization is the way.
Here's a question. This is a Twitter service, for ads in Twitter's stream.
What about users that feed into Twitter and Friendfeed? Will these ad-laden tweets be breaking the advertising codes on these platforms?
bustedkeys
· 4 months ago
cool new option! this will be interesting to see how it unfolds. but you're right about credibility. if someone tweeting with ads, the product had better be worth it!
Paul OFlaherty
· 4 months ago
I've been actively unfollowing people who use similar services to this and am sure that my unfollowing will only continue. I don't follow people on twitter to become and audience for 140 char long adverts. Leave your advertising on your blog where it belongs.
digijoe
· 4 months ago
I can understand about people being more reactive about this, as like SMS, Twitter is a much more personal medium and I get incensed when I get spammy texts- as texts you generally have to read and actively delete them from your device.
However also be realistic people - Twitter is going to be monetized by Twitter themselves, as well as ad networks, sponsored tweet providers whether you like it or not.
As long as a company like Izea (who have thought this out really well) is providing a system that is valuable to advertisers and can't be gamed i.e. follower ratios, and other quality indicators e.g. the quality of the followers (just like Adwords' Quality Score works) there is room for this to exist. As other commenters have pointed out there are millions of Twitter users out there who will tolerate these happening, moreso than the social media community here.
There is no such thing as a never-ending free lunch. Sponsored tweets will be coming to the Twitter clients from official sources and not (ideas such as colour coding have been suggested) and we'll adjust to it - just as I mostly ignore Google ads, banner ads, I'll gloss over #spon.
Dale M
· 4 months ago
You could easily see this one coming. It still does not address the standards issue of monetization. What is a tweet truely worth. There much more than clicks here. Brand is very big factor, but no way to measure how effective this will be for anyone except the person doing the tweeting, good and bad.
NatMich
· 4 months ago
I realize that something along the lines of this done with other media. With older media like television ads, for instance, it is totally normal for celebrities and other influential people to "personally endorse" some product that they supposedly used. So is it so different to have an influential twitter user personally endorse via tweet? I'm not really sure what I think yet, suffice it to say that I think that even with television promos paid endorsements diminish the credibility for me.
An idea that might be more difficult to implement but would be more in line with something I feel I could trust would be if people were paid to be on a "try it out" list which got sent a handful of sample products and so would guarantee companies exposure to their products but would leave it to the person receiving the samples to custom rank and add a personal opinion tweet of their liking.
Jorge
· 4 months ago
This could end up turning into spam if people just tweet out stuff to get payed. But if they choose what they tweet about and produce the tweets about products they really love that happen to be advertising it could be a nice chance to make cash, but that sounds like an utopia.
I think that right now this will seem as spam and if i see a sponsored tweet that looks like spam I will probably unfollow, unless it's non-frequent tweets about a cool product that person happens to be using. So in conclusion Anything that looks like spam or it's spam I will unfollow, but if it's some product I know that person uses and he is putting out a sponsored tweet about, or if that sponsored tweet is for a charity then it's ok.
Hodirlan Cristian
· 4 months ago
Because the IZEA #sponsoredtweets system is a brilliant system i`m offering one week of FREE tweets.
YES, you`re reading is just fine, add @otdto to your opportunity and I`ll tweet it (no need to say it should be a decent opp!!!).
Two days ago I was trying another pay-sort-of-tweets system and it was defintely a bad idea. I had to request refunds because there was no sort of control on what/whom/when my tweet will be posted and I ended paying too much for a not worthy tweeter (not his fault, the influence formula was a bad calculation one - i would say).
Comparing that system with IZEA @SponTwts , well I can`t.. because what Ted Murphy did was taking this social media advertisement to a business level, where you could actualy trust on what your money goes to.. will see if ROI it`s good, as for the moment i only managed to tweet myself (it was a test, and used my partner twitter account to join as advertiser).
If IZEA idea will get some feedback, it will transform it into a major player on the advertisement market.
MY2C
Shocked
· 3 months ago
Opinions are like eyes, everybody's got 'em, but see from different perspectives. Spam can be a bother to some but it has made people money. I agree that sometimes those who get paid will lie a little, but what about that burger commercial that shows you a big ol' burger drippin with sauce and meat and pickles and onions, so big you can't put your mouth around it. Then you go get one and it is as flat as a board. I hate that, too. Advertisers want to be where the people are and if they are on twitter then that's where you'll find them and people willing to work for them. I can respect someone if they choose to unfollow me for what ever reason, but not for trying to make an honest dollar. I could be on that other "list" posting ads to be someone's prostitute for the night but that is not me. Some come to make friends and others come to advertise. Thank you for allowing me to give my two cents. (Notice I did not add my website or keywords or anything like that out of respect.)
trulykiwi
· 3 months ago
I totally agree with every comment that says this is SPAM! However you look at it, any form of "unsolicited" advertisement and/or promotion is SPAM! To put a silk gown abd diamon slippers on it and call it a queen, does not make it a queen! From a business standpoint I would probably use it, if I had no ethics, but from a moral standpoint, this is why websites and email lists are now largely based on the "Double Opt In" method of communication.
If I as a Twitterer am askd if I want to receive ads, and have the option of opting out of them, then again this is fine. Anything else is SPAM, and should be treated with the contempt it deserves!
spam or Unsolicited Bulk Email (as it originated) is that. Unsolicited. For those who say "I'll unfollow them", you probably won't.
Did you stop listening to your favorite drive time radio talk shows because they tell you how sweet their mattress, car, dinner at [restaurant], etc was? Did you stop watching your favorite sports team when their players got endorsements? Did you stop using Youtube when they introduced in-player ads?
no? really? what were you thinking? You're promoting spammers!!!!
All that being said, I can't say I'm excited to see this development, but I have to say as long as the tweets clearly say "this is a sponsored tweet" or whatever, that's more of a disclaimer than I ever got from Michael Jordan about his Nikes.
Ortwin Oberhauser
· 1 month ago
Why on every website google adsense ads are tolerated, but on twitter we don't want to see advertising? I have created an account on Sponsored Tweets > http://bit.ly/DcIl and sold one Tweet, I have not lost one follower because of this and for the money I get, I will invite my family to a fine dinner. I don't feel I have done something wrong.
Why every TV Cannel, every Media mogul can earn big money with advertising and nobody feels disturbed but as soon as there is some privat people earning little money by the side with blogging or Twitter or what ever there are all this ethical reviews.
I will not tweet hundreds of sponsored tweets a day because for sure I don't want bother my followers, but twice a week one sponsored tweet will not irritate any follower and for me the little money on the side is just fine and welcome.
Thanks to Jennifer for the interesting post.
With best regards from Austria Ortwin Oberhauser @Oberhauser
vincej
· 1 month ago
NO, twitter is people, and people do all sorts of weird things
Get over trying to define what twitter is for or not. Twitter provides you with all sorts of tool to follow, unfollow, block, report, group people. A pornbot that sends you an @reply has not just violated you, just ignore it, or block it if you like. You put your name on the public space, it happens.
It's not MY twitter, it's just twitter, a microblog. that's all. Some days, I feel like I'm in a sandbox with the other children. cheers.
All Comments
did you read the article?
i think the title was appropriate, seeing as Cashmore clarified that the title came from other media sources and was (actually) inapposite.
Our platform is just the opposite. Low volume. High value. Worthy products, services and websites.
OH, well as long as it's high value, low volume spam then that's fine!!! Puhlease. Spam is spam. And if you're paid to say it then you don't mean it and if you do mean it you can't prove it because you're getting paid for it so you'd say it anyway.
"I'll unfollow anyone who tweets ads." - benjamin dobson.
ME: No you wont. focus groups are worthless. 99.999% of the people who say they WOULD do something DONT. You really don't know yourself as well as you think you do. Nobody will unfollow anybody they like. Did you dump your dream girl the moment you realized she had one habit that you previously considered nonnegotiable...? NO. relationships, even twelationship have a ... ugh... I'm gunna blog my answer... brb..
BACK! http://journik.posterous.com/work-from-home-mak...
One positive is that business may begin to take social media as a whole more seriously but I fear for the lasting effects and how it may prove to alienate more away rather than attract them to the medium.
I think the mass numbers of "experts" that are flocking to Twitter looking to teach people how to "retire young" and build "extra income" are much more dangerous to the future of Twitter than legitimate advertisers looking to build their brand or promote products/services through legitimate channels such as this.
I think the mass numbers of "experts" that are flocking to Twitter looking to teach people how to "retire young" and build "extra income" are much more dangerous to the future of Twitter than legitimate advertisers looking to build their brand or promote products/services through legitimate channels such as this.
I think the mass numbers of "experts" that are flocking to Twitter looking to teach people how to "retire young" and build "extra income" are much more dangerous to the future of Twitter than legitimate advertisers looking to build their brand or promote products/services through legitimate channels such as this.
We need to stop thinking of Twitter as 'ours' and instead realise that it's for 'normal' people too. If they're finding value following someone on Twitter, I doubt they'll mind the odd sponsored tweet - if the brand being promoted fits with a celebrity profile I don't see why a sponsored tweet is such a bad thing.
True, you get to choose who you tweet about, but won't you be tempted to tweet about the companies that offer you the best deal? I definitely see the allure of a service like this and that's what scares me. People like to make money, and for the people that have devoted a lot of time on twitter, this is a way for them to get some return...especially for those that have been questioning whether their time on twitter has been well spent.
The difference between Mashable thanking their sponsors and sponsoredtweets.com is that Mashable isn't claiming that their sponsors have any value, they're just thanking their sponsors for their contribution. On sponsoredtweets, tweeters claim that the company they're promoting has value, and that's where the issue lies.
@DavidSpinks
Alas
From a businessman's POV, I find this alluring. Being relevant on a daily basis is hard work, so would anyone's followers begrudge them the opportunity to earn some money on Twitter, to offset the investment of time and effort required to bring value to their followers?
And if we reach a point where people can subconsciously ignore Twitter ads with the same indifference we already apply to every other form of advertising, won't this be a moot point?
But yes, at heart, I'm a purist, and I see no value in this from a Twitter reader's standpoint.
Very true. But it sure helps.
My thoughts exactly. And I too don't see a huge problem... just as spammer Twitter accounts are unfollowed and often blocked, the same will surely happen with those "legit" Twitter users that go overboard with sponsored tweets. Hopefully, most Twitter users who join Sponsored Tweets will be considerate of their followers and be selective with what they tweet and how often they tweet.
James F.
Owner, TwitterBackground.com - Free Twitter backgrounds
I think you need a new avatar. You look like a yelling infomercial guy and it's not doing much to dispel my suspicions that your service is spam. I think your avatar is the personification of spam. :)
new avatar, then let's talk.
Sponsored Tweets are all over the place. So long as they are disclosed and done the right way there is nothing wrong with them.
Have you asked yourself why "thank our sponsor" posts are included in the RSS feed or even posted on the site to begin with?
I am not saying it's wrong, I like what mashable does and how they do it. I wouldn't personally unfollow them because of it. I am just saying a sponsored tweet is sponsored no matter how you cut it.
It will fail as it goes against everything genuine participants in Twitter (ie the advertiser's target market) believe the site is about. By that I mean genuine interraction. I block anyone who is advertising something at me in their tweets, UNLESS it is their own business and I chose to follow them knowing that they will self-promote.
Just seems to spammy when the pitch is restricted to a limited amount of characters. I'm fine with sponsored blog posts...because that allows for someone's true thoughts to be heard in more detail.
Twitter is a clean community in my mind currently. Unbiased communication for the most part. You subscribe to @jetbluecheeps because you want an advertisement, when the people you are not expecting to send you advertisements do...that is something to consider.
I am no necessarily for of against this use of sponsored tweet. It does change the game, but we do live in a place where we capitalize on the use of communication to the masses as quickly as possible because that is how many of us make money.
Also another flaw is that Twit's can just delete the sponsored ad from their Twitter stream right away. So as an advetiser you really do not know how many eye balls looked at that ad.
2. We check the stream to make sure it is not deleted.
Do you charge your family when you listen to their problems? Is your time worth nothing to you? Or maybe you just don't get paid for everything you say and do, you just do it for the enjoyment of doing it. Good grief.
I will gladly unfollow any twit-spammers that end up in my stream.
good luck with that.
Ted's program is specifically designed for 3 objectives:
1) Allow genuine tweeters to be paid for that which they honestly endorse.
2) Give advertisers a professional outlet for some amazing ROI, which they desperately need in these lean times.
3) PREVENTS spam! Sponsored Tweets isn't about link blurting or constant hammering of URLs. It's about authentic and transpararent endorsements made surrounding discussions.
Marketing is all over Twitter. It's high time we had some quality professional marketing done on it that has the community interests at heart. I know lots of "Big" names in Social Media who are saying they don't like this, meanwhile, they get paid for sponsorships... go figure!
So, let's do it right and keep the spam out. Ted Murphy, my friend, you have the right idea and my support.
I challenge anyone to say I am on Twitter to link spam or not engage. I constantly recommend and share my experiences about all kinds of things all the time. If I'm going to be paid for it, I'll let you know in that tweet. And it will be something that I personally endorse.
Mahalo for your thoughts!
Arleen Anderson
AKA @AlohaArleen
http://www.Twitter.com/AlohaArleen
Ted's program is specifically designed for 3 objectives:
1) Allow genuine tweeters to be paid for that which they honestly endorse.
2) Give advertisers a professional outlet for some amazing ROI, which they desperately need in these lean times.
3) PREVENTS spam! Sponsored Tweets isn't about link blurting or constant hammering of URLs. It's about authentic and transpararent endorsements made surrounding discussions.
Marketing is all over Twitter. It's high time we had some quality professional marketing done on it that has the community interests at heart. I know lots of "Big" names in Social Media who are saying they don't like this, meanwhile, they get paid for sponsorships... go figure!
So, let's do it right and keep the spam out. Ted Murphy, my friend, you have the right idea and my support.
I challenge anyone to say I am on Twitter to link spam or not engage. I constantly recommend and share my experiences about all kinds of things all the time. If I'm going to be paid for it, I'll let you know in that tweet. And it will be something that I personally endorse.
Mahalo for your thoughts!
Arleen Anderson
AKA @AlohaArleen
http://www.Twitter.com/AlohaArleen
For a better value, better karma, and an overall better experience, checkout our offering at http://adcause.com
Andy
Founder
adCause.com
I'm with the others I'll be all a unfollowing the spammers. Its a royal pain in the posterior.
The only people who will sign-up to have these posts sent via their account; are the kind of people less likely to encourage clicks.
It's also possible that brands could be tarnished, simply by aligning themselves with something that Twitter users are NOT asking for.
i'm not worried about it ruining twitter; as has been said multiple times (Dr Ian O'Neill, Justin Kownacki, et al.), i feel comfortable saying that nothing* will drastically change.
*except trending topics!?
i don't want to look at what's happening (trending) and always see a hashtag, that is supposed to distinguish ads from regular tweets, on the list.
otherwise, i think everything has been said. i expect it will play out to be a valid attempt at mass social media marketing, but ultimately turn out as a minor "twitter scare", if you will.
But if their Tweetstream was primarily paid ads, that would be different or if they were for sleazy/suspect products or services, I would unfollow. And ANY "get more followers" posts lead to automatic unfollowing!
At least for me though, it really depends on the message, the sender and the frequency of the ads. But everyone will have a different threshold of tolerance.
Nowadays many tweets are already sponsored, and you can clearly identify them. This isn't gonna change things as much.
I've been wondering how I was going to decide who to eliminate from my timeline.
Thanks, IZEA!!!! I can't wait to try it out!!!
1. Please also unsubscribe to every TV channel
2. Don't ever turn on your radio
3. Wear blinders over your eyes when you drive to work and walk the streets
4. Use ad-blockers and delete your cookies daily
5. Do not purchase any products endorsed by a celebrity
6. Do not open your mail or email
Remember that the INTERNET IS FREE and it is a privilege to have all of the great resources at our finger tips that we do. There is no birth right to have the internet when and wherever you please. Everything comes with a price. To have such a diverse wealth of quality content online, for all to use, concessions have to be made. To keep the internet interesting and progressive, monetization is the way.
http://www.evisibility.com/blog/f-u-pay-me-the-...
What about users that feed into Twitter and Friendfeed? Will these ad-laden tweets be breaking the advertising codes on these platforms?
However also be realistic people - Twitter is going to be monetized by Twitter themselves, as well as ad networks, sponsored tweet providers whether you like it or not.
As long as a company like Izea (who have thought this out really well) is providing a system that is valuable to advertisers and can't be gamed i.e. follower ratios, and other quality indicators e.g. the quality of the followers (just like Adwords' Quality Score works) there is room for this to exist. As other commenters have pointed out there are millions of Twitter users out there who will tolerate these happening, moreso than the social media community here.
There is no such thing as a never-ending free lunch. Sponsored tweets will be coming to the Twitter clients from official sources and not (ideas such as colour coding have been suggested) and we'll adjust to it - just as I mostly ignore Google ads, banner ads, I'll gloss over #spon.
An idea that might be more difficult to implement but would be more in line with something I feel I could trust would be if people were paid to be on a "try it out" list which got sent a handful of sample products and so would guarantee companies exposure to their products but would leave it to the person receiving the samples to custom rank and add a personal opinion tweet of their liking.
I think that right now this will seem as spam and if i see a sponsored tweet that looks like spam I will probably unfollow, unless it's non-frequent tweets about a cool product that person happens to be using. So in conclusion Anything that looks like spam or it's spam I will unfollow, but if it's some product I know that person uses and he is putting out a sponsored tweet about, or if that sponsored tweet is for a charity then it's ok.
YES, you`re reading is just fine, add @otdto to your opportunity and I`ll tweet it (no need to say it should be a decent opp!!!).
Two days ago I was trying another pay-sort-of-tweets system and it was defintely a bad idea. I had to request refunds because there was no sort of control on what/whom/when my tweet will be posted and I ended paying too much for a not worthy tweeter (not his fault, the influence formula was a bad calculation one - i would say).
Comparing that system with IZEA @SponTwts , well I can`t.. because what Ted Murphy did was taking this social media advertisement to a business level, where you could actualy trust on what your money goes to.. will see if ROI it`s good, as for the moment i only managed to tweet myself (it was a test, and used my partner twitter account to join as advertiser).
If IZEA idea will get some feedback, it will transform it into a major player on the advertisement market.
MY2C
If I as a Twitterer am askd if I want to receive ads, and have the option of opting out of them, then again this is fine. Anything else is SPAM, and should be treated with the contempt it deserves!
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2009/09/make-money...
spam or Unsolicited Bulk Email (as it originated) is that. Unsolicited. For those who say "I'll unfollow them", you probably won't.
Did you stop listening to your favorite drive time radio talk shows because they tell you how sweet their mattress, car, dinner at [restaurant], etc was? Did you stop watching your favorite sports team when their players got endorsements? Did you stop using Youtube when they introduced in-player ads?
no? really? what were you thinking? You're promoting spammers!!!!
All that being said, I can't say I'm excited to see this development, but I have to say as long as the tweets clearly say "this is a sponsored tweet" or whatever, that's more of a disclaimer than I ever got from Michael Jordan about his Nikes.
Why every TV Cannel, every Media mogul can earn big money with advertising and nobody feels disturbed but as soon as there is some privat people earning little money by the side with blogging or Twitter or what ever there are all this ethical reviews.
I will not tweet hundreds of sponsored tweets a day because for sure I don't want bother my followers, but twice a week one sponsored tweet will not irritate any follower and for me the little money on the side is just fine and welcome.
Thanks to Jennifer for the interesting post.
With best regards from Austria
Ortwin Oberhauser
@Oberhauser
Get over trying to define what twitter is for or not.
Twitter provides you with all sorts of tool to follow, unfollow, block, report, group people.
A pornbot that sends you an @reply has not just violated you, just ignore it, or block it if you like.
You put your name on the public space, it happens.
It's not MY twitter, it's just twitter, a microblog. that's all.
Some days, I feel like I'm in a sandbox with the other children.
cheers.