New from Izea: Forget Pay Per Post, Here Comes Pay Per Tweet
Izea, the controversial company formerly called Pay Per Post, is well-known for paying bloggers to post articles about products. These "sponsored conversations" have had big-name advertisers like K-Mart and Sears funding the campaigns as well as big-name bloggers like Chris Brogan and Julia Roy writing paid articles. Despite the fact that many participants fully disclose their involvement when writing a sponsored post, Izea still has quite a few critics thanks to the bloggers who do not.
Now those critics will have something else to get up-in-arms about: Izea is planning a launch of a new ad platform called "Sponsored Tweets." And just like it sounds, this new spinoff will pay people to tweet.
According to an article on AdWeek, the Sponsored Tweets Twitter ad platform is set to launch in about a month, or so says Izea CEO, Ted Murphy. Already, the company has run promotions on Twitter like this one for Blockbuster where all the posts are marked with a #spon hashtag indicating the post is a paid tweet. Once launched, the Sponsored Tweets program will follow a similar course.
Murphy believes the community will be self-policing and the sponsored messages won't get out-of-hand since too many paid tweets could easily alienate a Twitter user's followers. And because some campaigns will pay based on the number of clicks a link receives, that's not something the pay-per-tweet participants would want to risk. (Other campaigns will pay a flat rate per tweet).
Izea isn't the only company using Twitter as an ad platform - the pay-per-tweet service Magpie has also been running campaigns for some time. However, on Magpie the companies whose sponsored messages were being tweeted out weren't necessarily the ones buying the ads - it was outside affiliates. Of course, that only came to light after we revealed some of the participating company names in a blog post back in April. Still, the set up there is arguably much more spammy than with Izea who plans to work directly with advertisers.
The only question now is how big will the backlash be this time around? Is this a better or worse idea than paid blog posts? Will you immediately unfollow anyone whose posted a tweet tagged #spon? Or only if they go overboard? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Twitter's evolution has been heavily user-influenced, as you can see in the support pages where the team reveals that a lot of features were introduced into the Tweetosphere by the users themselves. For e.g. @replies, hashtags, etc. (hope I got that one right)
Considering the above, sponsored tweets shouldn't pose a major problem. You have covered most of the scenarios in the article itself (Good job, that). So it's just a matter of whether #spon will be allowed to peacefully co-exist or get 'voted out' if it gets too annoying.
Twitter is definately the In-thing for Internet Marketers and everybody is trying monetize from it.
I am as well and I too hope to see some results soon.
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June 5, 2009 8:38 AM
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I wouldn't mind Twitter sending sponsored tweets (within reason), as I think they're entitled to make some money from the product they developed and half the world uses.
However, the first Twitter user I'm following that tweets a #spon is getting defollowed. I'm selective about who I follow, and I follow people because I'm genuinely interested in what they have to say. When what they have to say becomes ads, I'm no longer interested.
Pay Per Post may be morally grey, but Pay Per Tweet is down right despicable.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with making paid tweets. I don't even think you need to disclose which are and aren't paid, so long as you acknowledge somewhere you willing accept money for your services. The only reputation you risk is your own and people will accept you based on everything else you do. If they get pissy because once in a while you throw out an advertisement, then they definitely weren't your friend, much less someone you should care about following you.
I don't think the backlash will be bad against people tweeting things they normally would tweet about, if they maintain their credibility otherwise.
Twitter (the company) throwing up a couple ads is fine. It's a controlled setting.
imo, a third party leveraging the system allowing us and advertisers to go hog wild and willy-nilly with whatever ads someone will pay for -- that's what ruins communities.
I worry that if we get a couple VC backed IZEA clones, we'll end up with Spymaster, but with ads instead of fun fun silly game tweets.
Dean, I think you're on the right thread. 1 or 2 of these services probably wouldn't change the Twittersphere all that much, but if they're successful, then 100 copycat services will pop up and it's going to be a mess. I prefer to be vigilant and not let this stuff in the door. I'm marketed to enough in my life as it is. I un-follow anyone who does Magpie and I will do so with Izea as well.
I'm sure Izea will continue to come up with these ideas and make a ton of money off the companies who purchase this. I'd caution the companies who buy into the whole Pay-Per-Tweet idea, to consider whether that's really the best strategy for Twitter. Twitter is an amazing tool that companies need to consider seriously and with long-term ramifications, other than how many tweets they can garner from paying for them! Great post, as usual :-)
Chris - you assume everyone will use the hashtag to disclose the relationship? as we've seen with blogging, the best practices aren't always followed. i like the idea (izea/) of upfront companies tweeting for themselves. if they provide engaging content and a satisfying brand experience, they dont have to pay people to shill of them.
twitter needs to think like a telecom carrier and make money off services.
Great post! Thanks!!
Regards,
clip a path
I'm not sure if I like the idea, but movies and music do it. Sponsors pay for product placement so why not on blogs, twitter, and facebook.
PayPerTweet.com is now for sale.
Hey, we started work on a similar idea way back in January. Maybe Ted Murphy read our FAQ... LOL. Anyway, TweetROI.com launched for real yesterday. No need to wait. ;-)
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