By PRADNYA JOSHI
Update | 12:45 p.m. Added comment from Scott McDaniel, who send a Kmart ad through his BabyGotMac Twitter account.
A sponsored tweet from Kmart.
Now that Twitter is essentially back to normal after last week’s cyberattack, it’s time to delve into an emerging issue that is already riling the Twittersphere: paid tweets.
Izea, the marketing company behind a pay-per-post service that enables companies to pay bloggers for every post about their product or service, is now bringing its concept to Twitter. The company last week introduced Sponsored Tweets, which pays users for every commercial ad or paid message that is blasted to their Twitter followers.
The commercialism of social media networks like Twitter and Facebook has been on the rise. Oprah Winfrey demonstrated the power of commercial messages in May after she mentioned a giveaway for KFC chicken; the online link was downloaded and shared through sites like Twitter so quickly that the chain could not keep up with demand.
According to the research firm PQ Media, word-of-mouth marketing increased 14.2 percent to $1.54 billion in 2008. Sponsored Tweets hopes to capture some of those dollars.
As Twitter is is currently set up, there is no easy way for your followers to opt out of commercial messages while accepting your (presumably) noncommercial posts about the brand of cereal you ate for breakfast.
Other companies, particularly Magpie & Friends, have created advertising networks on Twitter, and another service called PayMeTweets is in beta testing. Magpie, based in Berlin, got a lot of attention as well as some complaints about its overtly commercial approach.
Izea’s founder and chief executive, Ted Murphy, said his company’s platform was better controlled. He also said Izea put a lot of effort into developing a clear disclosure policy. The Sponsored Tweets platform requires Twitters to add a hash tag like #ad, the word sponsored in parentheses or a short disclosure like “brought to you by” before any ad goes out.
Mr. Murphy said the company had originally created the disclosure tag #spon (to stand for “sponsored post”) but decided not to use it because it might not have been clear to some users. With tweets limited to 140 characters in length, the company had to be creative in following truth-in-advertising rules while getting across the commercial message.
Twitter users who sign up to send ads to their network of friends and followers will get paid based on various individual metrics, like a person’s reach on Twitter, the ratio of friends to followers, length of time on Twitter and, of course, the number of followers. An active Twitter user with 10,000 followers could make $25 to $35 per commercial tweet, Mr. Murphy said.
The platform is set up so that the advertiser can decide whether to write the ad copy or let the Twitter user generate it. Twitter users can also pick and choose ad campaigns, and Mr. Murphy says only about 60 percent of the ad opportunities offered through Sponsored Tweets had been accepted.
Mr. Murphy said he could not disclose which companies were using the Sponsored Tweets service. But tweets that went out Thursday — when Twitter was largely unusable due to a huge data attack — included Kmart ads promoting “Blue Light Specials” for items like patio furniture.
“We’re seeing lots of new advertisers we’ve never seen before,” Mr. Murphy said. “Even things that are clearly disclosed as advertising still get spread.”
The service has received mixed reviews in Twitter discussions. Some Twitterers see it as a great way to make money from doing what they do anyway. Others have criticized the concept.
The Sponsored Tweets service has also upset some bloggers, including Andy Sernovitz, who runs a consulting firm called GasPedal and was former president of a trade group called the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
“It’s seen as spam,” Mr. Sernovitz said. “There will definitely be backlash.”
He said he believed that marketers would be cautious in using the service. “There are lots of ways you can do advertising on blogs and social media that are accepted,” Mr. Sernovitz said.
Scott McDaniel, who tweeted a Kmart ad last week through his BabyGotMac account, said in a comment to this post, “I see Twitter ads in the same light that I see Web site ads — a normal part of Web commerce. The unfollow button and the ability to weed out hash tags in some Twitter client software are akin to ad blockers in browsers.”
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17 Comments
1. August 10, 2009
8:34 am
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I see that the “don’t follow” button will be used more and more. I don’t want that kind of spaming on my tweets. It’s actually a good thing for people who like it, but we all have a choice! It’s like TIVO…
— Rolando
2. August 10, 2009
9:10 am
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I would instantly block any person deliberately sending me an advertisement from ever contacting me again.
— MitchP
3. August 10, 2009
10:36 am
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No … the KFC example you cite - “Oprah Winfrey demonstrated the power of commercial messages (in Social Media) in May - is NOT a demonstration of the power of social media … it is a demonstration of the power of “mainstream media”… in this case, the power of O.
— kevin scully
4. August 10, 2009
10:36 am
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This is way too early. The risks to your Social Brand are sky high and impossible to model.
For $35.00 the Individual is taking all the risk. Its a poor trade. Better to be a Late Adapter.
Aly-Khan Satchu
http://www.rich.co.ke
Twitter alykhansatchu
— Aly-Khan Satchu
5. August 10, 2009
11:08 am
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I have had the opportunity to use the site as an advertiser. I’ve looked into some different ways that brands can get their message out there that won’t be so intrusive on the conversation. The example that you have up there for KMart is going to be the type of thing that draws that backlash. Twitter is a conversation and that ad is interrupting the conversation. Using methods that integrate in the conversation, or start a new interesting conversation, will be better received, though still not in the clear it seems.
@DavidSpinks
— David Spinks
6. August 10, 2009
11:15 am
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If Twitter doesn’t do something to restrict these Spweets (Spam Tweets) they’ll end up loosing a huge amount of users.
Jane Stone
VP Marketing
http://www.pointbanner.com
— Jane Stone
7. August 10, 2009
11:46 am
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For every new follower I get that is a truly real person, I get at least 10 spam or porn followers that I then block. A few of my latest followers are probably not real, but they are being subtle. I keep an eye out, and will block them when I need to.
It’s annoying. Just as all the ISPs had to learn how to built robust e-mail spam filters, Twitter is going to have to as well.
— Carol
8. August 10, 2009
11:58 am
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I will unfollow anyone with sponsored tweets. Twitter stream should be kept free of spam. Twitter is about helping, sharing and fun, not spam.
As paid tweets appear in stream, people will block/report spam. Twitter get enough, accounts will be suspend/deleted as spammer.
— mayhemstudios
9. August 10, 2009
12:22 pm
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If record companies can’t pay DJs to broadcast music, why can any company pay an Internet user to broadcast messaging? There is a great hypocrisy inherent in the notion of “word of mouth” marketing, and if not handled correctly, we will eventually lose ourselves to commercialism and manipulation. Izea is shady business. I would not want to align myself with them.
— anon
10. August 10, 2009
12:33 pm
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Hi, I am Scott McDaniel AKA @babygotmac.
So far as the content and context of the sponsored tweets go, this particular Tweet was a test on my part. I let my followers know I was going to try it beforehand and if they were to object, I probably wouldn’t do it again.
My site, Twitter stream and content are often tongue in cheek and a little different - so perhaps I have the advantage of a more open minded group to converse with.
If the ads were more in context with my stream (Macs, tech, music), I’d be more inclined to try them more often, and I think that my followers would probably not mind.
I see Twitter ads in the same light that I see web site ads - a normal part of web commerce. The unfollow button and the ability to weed out hashtags in some Twitter client software are akin to adblockers in browsers.
I think that most people understand that websites subsist on the small amount of revenue they obtain from sponsors, and that most people will be willing to accept a minor interruption if it keeps a specific site afloat.
Thanks for listening, following and posting my logo - surely the first cartoon buttock ever in the NYT!
Scott McDaniel
BabyGotMac.com
— Scott McDaniel
11. August 10, 2009
1:03 pm
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I find it funny that free services like twitter and facebook and the link people complain about those companies (and their users) wanting to get rewarded for the time they spend online.
No ads on facebook = no facebook.
And for those of you that twitter is your poison of choice, it is a step or two above cancer. The fact that your “religion” is clouded by an ad or two and you must then excommunicate them (unfollow in the twitter doublespeak language) makes me giggle every time I hear it.
While I see twitter as a seeminly useful tool, it is just people too lazy to use an instant messenger, or too lazy to blog. Also the url things that make a long url short annoy me. I want to know the site I am going to is not some fake site, so seeing a small one is insulting.
— Ben
12. August 10, 2009
1:22 pm
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Advertising on websites is different - a whole page of useful content with ads on the borders is palatable, non-intrusive. But to have every 5th tweet be a paid plug is too much, not worth it.
— Arthur
13. August 10, 2009
1:27 pm
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All twitter did was give me another reason to hate email.
Some I’ve gotten:
“My son just read the new Harry Potter book in 2 days.” So, is he gifted or something?
“I just saved 15% by switching my insurance to Geico.”
Some tweets are just ridiculous. “As I ate my Wheaties, I contemplated the meaning of life.” From some pro-basketball player. I think the meaning of life for him is that $18 million a year contract.
“I really think we need to extend cash for clunkers or just ruin the environment.” Thanks Ms. Socceer mom who just picked up her two brats from school in the land cruiser.
Twitter thrives on making some ego the size of a cathedral so they can become even a bigger celebrity in their own mind. Sorry, but you still live with your parents and I could care less if you beat the high score in World of Warcraft or made $20 online doing a survey.
And, if people who live in 30,000 ft. houses have to tweet to their kids dinner is ready, isn’t that just weird?
Get a life people! Like MySpace, I’m sure we’ll have some lofty goal of trying to find all the pedophiles on Twitter. Wait, I just got a Tweet the NYC Attorney General is looking into it.
As for me, I just have fond memories of when Oprah didn’t ruin everything.
— rachel
14. August 10, 2009
1:59 pm
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“As Twitter is is currently set up, there is no easy way for your followers to opt out of commercial messages…”
Not true - it’s called the “unfollow” link and I’ll use it liberally if anyone I follow starts spamming me.
— Michael
15. August 10, 2009
2:04 pm
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Personally I agree with Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, who commented the new service pay-per-tweet, ” any tweet or blog is immediately de-valued if the author is being paid to write it, because the objectivity is lost.”
My own comment on this can be read in my most recent blog entry on: http://www.pollackblog.com.
— Noemi Pollack
16. August 10, 2009
2:38 pm
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what, US people can’t deal with commercialization anymore? isn’t *everything* about selling something in your culture?
— somegal
17. August 10, 2009
3:09 pm
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it’s fact that twitter is increasingly being pressured by financial backs for return on their investments. Unfortunately, these backers failed to see that twitter business model is essentially flawed. When you look at the the rate of users coming back after the 1st month, dismal would be something that twitter management would be very happy to hear.
While adding adds to a site does increase revenue, I personally never clicked on single (facebook, myspace, orkut, etc). This latest move on twitter’s management seems a desperate attempt to increase cash flow; however, this myopic decision will likely upset more users than attract new users.
Anyone who was around the first dot.com, late 90’s early 2000’s, remember how many flawed business models were backed by millions only to see all that money evaporate. This is net 2.0 and twitter is another flawed model.
posted by Unknown @ 12:53 PM
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