Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

vincej — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:36:52 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Ortwin Oberhauser — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:40:45 -0000

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

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:20:07 -0000

ugh. The old "spam" argument.

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Dare — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:54:16 -0000

So Techcrunch ads = spam. Google Adsense = Spam. I'm sure you ain't making lots of money with this kind of thinking.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

paramendra — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:24:20 -0000

I am for it.
http://technbiz.blogspot.co...

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

trulykiwi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:06:51 -0000

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!

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Shocked — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:12:56 -0000

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.)

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Hodirlan Cristian — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:46:09 -0000

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

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Jorge — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:42:51 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

NatMich — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:16:22 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Dale M — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:53:02 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

digijoe — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:24:21 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Paul O'Flaherty — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:36:48 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

bustedkeys — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:48:17 -0000

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!

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Danny Brown — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:12:19 -0000

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?

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Daniel Redman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:58:02 -0000

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.

http://www.evisibility.com/...

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

mikewb — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:03:20 -0000

Twitter needs to ban this practice immediately! This is the cancer of social networks.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

RWK: disruptive tech/guerrilla — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:57:52 -0000

@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..

BACK! http://journik.posterous.co...

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Danny Brown — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:42:39 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Keith Gerr — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:33:46 -0000

paid tweet = spam

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Liz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:19:59 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Brandon Eley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:48:00 -0000

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.

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Rich_Weaver — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:47:55 -0000

Absolutely correct sir. I on the other hand like spam, esp fried!

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Brandon Eley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:45:48 -0000

Re: Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?

Brandon Eley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:45:09 -0000