While ideas come and go, some ideas are definitely worse than others. PC World ran a story this morning talking about a new Twitter venture called Sponsored Tweets.
The article, Twitter Sells Out explains, "Run by IZEA, a company that specializes in advertising via social networks, the service lets businesses pay "celebrities" to tout their product or personality." Reporter, Brennon Slattery, closes by writting, "Sponsored Tweets -- and services like it -- are damaging Twitter's already bruised reputation by turning it into an advertising spam-fest rather than an innovative tool connecting people."
I believe spam-fest is an understatement. To illustrate, I created a new Twitter account @GetSpammed. I have not provided anything to suggest who I really am, my Twitter handle is @GetSpammed, and the account has zero followers. I signed up for Sponsored Tweets and was presented with the following screen.
While the site promotes that you can have celebrities tweet on your behalf, I created this account as a non-celebrity interested in tweeting about "Adults Only" content--basically everything representing the worst spammer I could imagine. After completing the form, I was presented with the following confirmation.
I am not expecting to have a lot of requests to endorse products with this account (I wouldn't anyway). Advertisers can use a number of filters and selection criteria to determine who they invite to tweet on their behalf. Mashable covers these tools in more detail.
Nevertheless, the entire concept presents an overly simple business model spammers will be more than happy to follow:
There are plenty of people in the world willing to do the unethical for money. Sponsored Tweets not only enables, but promotes crying, "Come all ye spammers and use Twitter to make a quick buck."
Of course, there are some who would disagree with this assessment, believing that the social phenomenon will help weed out bad tweeters who abuse the system. How quickly we forget the monumental efforts email has made in order to combat spam. People get pretty creative when there is free money to be made.
The big question, is Twitter digging it's own grave by allowing this? I think it is, curious to hear your thoughts.
To learn more about ethically expanding your social media reach, read the whitepaper “Expanding the Reach of Email Through Social Networks Whitepaper.”
The article, Twitter Sells Out explains, "Run by IZEA, a company that specializes in advertising via social networks, the service lets businesses pay "celebrities" to tout their product or personality." Reporter, Brennon Slattery, closes by writting, "Sponsored Tweets -- and services like it -- are damaging Twitter's already bruised reputation by turning it into an advertising spam-fest rather than an innovative tool connecting people."
I believe spam-fest is an understatement. To illustrate, I created a new Twitter account @GetSpammed. I have not provided anything to suggest who I really am, my Twitter handle is @GetSpammed, and the account has zero followers. I signed up for Sponsored Tweets and was presented with the following screen.
While the site promotes that you can have celebrities tweet on your behalf, I created this account as a non-celebrity interested in tweeting about "Adults Only" content--basically everything representing the worst spammer I could imagine. After completing the form, I was presented with the following confirmation.
I am not expecting to have a lot of requests to endorse products with this account (I wouldn't anyway). Advertisers can use a number of filters and selection criteria to determine who they invite to tweet on their behalf. Mashable covers these tools in more detail.
Nevertheless, the entire concept presents an overly simple business model spammers will be more than happy to follow:
- Get a ton of followers through any means necessary (there are already plenty of morally questionable tactics promoted consistently for this)
- Make yourself look credible by trimming down the people you follow in order to get your following:follower ratio to 1 or less
- Sign up to get paid and spam the heck out of your list for a quick buck
- Rinse and repeat with as many accounts as you can
There are plenty of people in the world willing to do the unethical for money. Sponsored Tweets not only enables, but promotes crying, "Come all ye spammers and use Twitter to make a quick buck."
Of course, there are some who would disagree with this assessment, believing that the social phenomenon will help weed out bad tweeters who abuse the system. How quickly we forget the monumental efforts email has made in order to combat spam. People get pretty creative when there is free money to be made.
The big question, is Twitter digging it's own grave by allowing this? I think it is, curious to hear your thoughts.
To learn more about ethically expanding your social media reach, read the whitepaper “Expanding the Reach of Email Through Social Networks Whitepaper.”
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