How to Sell Your Soul on Twitter and Who's Buying
What are you doing? No what are you doing Apple, Skype, Flip, StubHub and Box.net?? These popular companies just couldn't resist paying off Twitter users to put advertisements into their Twitter streams using the new pay-per-tweet service Magpie. It's enough to make you question the true motives of any outspoken fan and the end result is pretty laughable when you take "a bird's eye view."
We were disappointed when a browser script showed us a Magpie redirect behind a shortened link in a Skype testimonial today. Then we used a search on the service BackTweets to find out who else is buying fake Tweets on the service. It's so revolting and pitiful that it's kind of sad.
Each of these companies have more than one campaign running and these are all just from the last 6 hours! Magpie is spewing Tweets through peoples' accounts all day long. All of the links are obscured by URL shortening service is.gd (hope they are getting a cut!) and the clicker ends up on the advertiser site. Clearly disclosure isn't mandatory; but even if it was this is just creepy, is it not?
Update: As a number of commenters and at least one of these companies have pointed out, it's not the companies themselves buying these ads - it's most likely outside affiliates. So direct your frustration to whoever is in charge of affiliate programs at these companies, not in house ad buyers. Update again: Box.net's participation in this program has been de-activated by Magpie based on the comment left by the company's CEO below. The company says they'd been trying to remove their affiliate links from Magpie prior to this story running.
Update: Four days later Stubhub tells us they have also given Magpie the boot from their affiliate program.
Apple
We thought Apple was able to secure enough mind control with its design prowess that it didn't have to pay for it! We presume that when most of these people say they bought one of these devices recently, they are flatly lying. Apple is paying them to lie like a robot to their friends on Twitter. Nice.
Skype
We especially like that one of the users here is named "High and Noble." Uh, yeah.
Cisco's Flip
The company that makes those Flip cameras just got bought by Cisco for almost $600 million dollars - because everyone loves the Flip.
Box.net
We know and like the people at online storage company Box.net. Their CEO didn't respond to our inquiry about the use of Magpie, but we'll give him a hard time about it next time we see him. The last user in this picture is an account that just aggregates other peoples' Tweets about farting - and then throws in Magpie ads. Classy all around!
Update: Box.net's participation in this program has been de-activated by Magpie based on the comment left by the company's CEO below.
StubHub
Ok, so StubHub might not be the kind of company you'd be shocked to find out participates in this kind of thing, but the informal language and appeals to family in this one struck us. Update: Four days after publication of this post, Stubhub contacted us to let us know that they are no longer allowing Magpie to be part of their affiliate program.
FatCow
Ok, we don't know FatCow Web Hosting from a hole in the wall but the language here again is really remarkable. Dear FatCow "fans": you are allowing yourself to be turned into a lying robot zombie for a few dollars a month! Have you no shame?
So there's the Twitter-sphere for you! Bring on "real time search," bring on a globally connected community, bring on vapid, vile, stupid shilling. It all seems pretty sad to me. And to the advertisers out there - is this cynical scheme the best you can do to engage with all the new ways people are communicating online? That's pretty bad.
You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Rick Turoczy, Sean Ammirati, Lidija Davis and Phil Glockner. We won't try to sneakily sell you anything!
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"We thought Apple was able to secure enough mind control with its design prowess that it didn't have to pay for it! We presume that when most of these people say they bought one of these devices recently, they are flatly lying. Apple is paying them to lie like a robot"
This is a flat-out lie. Readwriteweb knows very well that Apple would never advertise in the underhanded way being suggested here. But since readwriteweb is a Microsoft controlled, anti-Apple propaganda site, then lying BS is what you get.
hippiegirljess #Magpie "apple has reburbished iTV's on sale"
What is an iTV??? there is no such product, and you at readwriteweb know it, and it's an immediate clue that something is rotten. The Apple product is AppleTV.
More lying Microsoft propaganda from Readwriteweb.
Also remember the MacHeist TweetBlast — but it's not selling your soul or impugning your values if you really believe and have a passion for what you're promoting. A bigger problem here is so many cookie-cutter messages that leave no room for personal expression of why you'd earnestly recommend a product to a friend.
Money can make it feel dirty, but to really ascertain this, observe specifics.
This is the background behind the registration of @Tweetingale, twitterers need to be able to come up with their own messages for promoting advertiser products that they like, and they get paid per tweet.
Twitter is another form of media, and any media will need to rely on advertising to sustain itself, unless the government funds it. You would have found twitter's own ad boxes at the right in twitter web interface.
In this case, the complaint is that the tweets are 'deceptive' as they seem to come from friends and contacts, so it is YOUR friend who decided to make some bucks by signing up for magpie, so whats wrong with that? Doesnt your friend have the right to do so? All this would solve itself, when magpie becomes opt-in advertising, so you wont receive magpie ads if you send a @matpie optout, just like Google personalized network ad optout cookie.
Also, people have a business to promote, and it is hypocrisy when whoever says I want to advertise my business but I wont allow other people to advertise to me. This is just like SMS advertising and email newsletters (CANSPAM act)- you 'opt in' and see ads, if you dont like, you can opt out any time.
Fascinating to follow the comments. OUTRAGED! HOW COULD THEY! Blah, Blah, Blah.
Of come on. Facebook includes 'sponsored links' and 'advertising' on YOUR home page. Google places 'contextual' and 'behaviour based' advertising on YOUR Search results. Bloggers, Social Bookmarks, LifeFeeds, etc. carry advertising. So it's OK for Facebook, Google, RedWriteWeb, etc. to make $$$ from YOU but not OK to make money yourself?
What exactly is the problem?
- Your Friends have not tagged these as Ads (OK maybe they should be)
- Your Friends are making more money than you (because they're more popular)
- You still believe the web is FREE (So who pays for the servers and bandwidth you’re using?)
- This service is not being run by Twitter (would this make it more acceptable?)
As more companies join Twitter 'advertising links' will become more frequent. I see no problem with an individual being able to provide these same links and earn something in return. Afterall YOU ‘opt into’ the service and can 'opt out' at any time.
If you don't like what I have to say, STOP FOLLOWING me.
It is clear that the Magpie Tweets are from totally clueless people. Not only do they use the Magpie hashtag (which is useless here) but they do not even bother to try and cloak the URLs. I think this is more of a problem for new Twitter users than the more expert ones.
The twitterverse is changing. These are the early days of twitter (like the early days of the internet or email), there will be churning and advertising whether we like it or not. Twitter can never go back to pre-2009. The barbarians are inside the gates.
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kentbeatty
The twitterverse is changing. These are the early days of twitter (like the early days of the internet or email), there will be churning and advertising whether we like it or not. Twitter can never go back to pre-2009. The barbarians are inside the gates.
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kentbeatty
I wrote about this on my blog. It isn't just the comments like that. It is the push for people to get more and more followers. It is the idea that Twitter is a platform for pushing a personal brand. There is so much being espoused that has little to do with community building in a healthy way that I'm just yeah. It is one of the primary factors in trimming my follow list and using Twitter less.
An iTV? So you're saying, Marshal, that Apple, the company with some of the tightest brand control around, has forgotten that it doesn't make something called an iTV, but does make something called an Apple TV? I'm looking at some Apple blogs now and see no mention of the brand change, so you must have gotten a double scoop on this one.
Magpie is worrying and greasy to say the least, but tread carefully with the accusations, please.
It's not like we don't know it's inevitable there will be ads on Twitter, and you have to at least give them credit when they are tagged Magpie you can filter those out.
What's interesting to me is the language. It's amazing how quickly some advertisers have learned social media phrasing to make these ads fit right into the stream of things. While some agencies still don't get it, Magpie is an example of learning your market before you get into it.
Would I use it or recommend it? Nope. I agree with Mari, I've built a business based on trust and I'm not going to blow their trust with hidden ads. If I support a product or company I will do it openly.
Advertising on Twitter is here to stay,just as it is on blogs and websites.
Pretty elitist of you, RWW. You guys have sold blog posts before, why can't Twitter users? http://engineindustries.com/blog/jason/readwritewebs-elitist-twitter-snobbery
Great information to know. Another way to get traffic, but yet clutters up twitter. Since we always have the option to stop following people who have signed up to be a magpie, then I really don't see anything wrong with it. I still have the option to stop following if I want.
I fell for one of the Fat Cow links! Or did I? Someone on Twitter recommended FatCow hosting - but now I have to assume it was a fake, paid for recommendation.
Removing FatCow from my bookmark list of hosting companies to evaluate.
Magpie? Really? We're still talking about this? I agree with Marshall, it's an odious form of advertising, but it's old news at this point. Most Twitter folks either drop Magpie very quickly or avoid it like the plague.
Twitter is not about selling. The sooner people and businesses learn that the better. That is not to say that sales can occur, but they occur, as a by product of the help, support, ideas, opinions, added value, knowledge and engagement that you bring...
By doing lal the above, People begin to trust you and value your content, and then when appropriate and relevant, thy may go to your site, and buy something...
I personally would never get involved with Magpie, or any other form of advertising to my followers....
Best
Mark
@markshaw
Some of these comments make my head hurt...
"It's just like the ppl who complained about advertising on blogs.." and "You have ads on your blog here, hypocrite!"
There is a difference between an ad on a blog/twitter/online and what Magpie is doing. It's wording the tweet like it's the person's opinion on something.
That would be like readwriteweb.com posting a blog post as a review of a product/service, and it's actually written by the company that's selling it, and no disclaimer has been made.
I don't blame companies for trying to get into this "Tweeter/Tweezer... Twacker.... whatever kids are doin these days" I blame the people who sign-up to use it in their tweet stream. Magpie clearly states what will happen when you sign-up. You're selling ur tweets, which is your choice, but they are dishonest, depending on wording.
It takes 1,000 tweets to build your brand on Twitter, and one to ruin it.
First of all, i will thank href="http://twitter.com/brickcheney/"@brickcheney
First of all, i will thank href="http://twitter.com/brickcheney/"@brickcheney
There's always a lot of uproar when a service comes out ahead of it's time. The main problems I see are the contextual targeting is too general and users can not change the ad copy so it sounds "spammy". Also through in people's bias that any ad, even an ad for a product that is relevant to the conversation and in line with the community's values, is unacceptable.
If I have a twitter following of vegans and I tweet a Burger King ad, that's spam. If I tweet about a new veggie burger then I'm adding value to the community. And in the bad economic times why shouldn't I get a commission for recommending a product that helps the community? Right now the tech's not there, but when Magpie and their competitors can automate a platform that can do this why would you call it spam?
Have your friends ever recommended a product to you, or sold Avon, Tupperware? When you ask a taxi driver for a nice restaurant do you know he gets a commission for bringing people in? So if a twitter follower offers a product or service that is in line with the community why shouldn't they be paid as well? I think putting food on my family's table by helping my friends is wonderful.
And please remember to shake hands with a flesh and blood human being. It's not possible to be friends with 25,000 people on Twitter.
Apologize for the two comments above. Though i am not sure whether they were due to my fault or RWW's softwares, what i was trying to do was to have a preview.
I request the admin to remove the comments above along with this one. I am communicating with the author via e-mail so i have nothing more to share. Thanks.
My take on Magpie and similar services is that if companies are not willing to invest the time to develop actual relationships and conversations with customers - and I cannot understand why any company wouldn't want that - then I wouldn't care to have their ads in my first in such an environment anyways.
I follow companies on Twitter and appreciate the ones that genuinely interact with their followers. The ones paying others to do it simply don't get it - or my attention.
Magpie seems great! Going to sign up right now!
You should really do proper research before publishing this stuff. IMHO, you look stupid. You wouldn't have to publish updates, if you were a real reporter.
I don't agree with this, the last thing we want it "fake tweets" clogging up the twitosphere just for a Pay Per Tweet. That will be the death of twitter... Thanks for the heads up though ;-)
Terrance Charles
http://twitter.com/TerranceCharles
I disagree with that service, that's the last thing we need on twitter, "fake tweets" just for a Pay Per Tweet purpose. That will be the death of twitter, but thanks for the heads up ;-)
Terrance Charles
http://twitter.com/TerranceCharles
Marshall I'm interested in where people draw the line on appropriate advertising. "The community" needs a lot more discussion about transparency and advertising standards in social media.
I'm not a fan of the Magpie service and don't use it, but I'd say if the ads are disclosed it would be "more ethical" than a blogger or legacy journalist writing about a company without disclosure of affiliation. That's the real challenge now as many of us "cover" news about companies we many have relationships with.
I heard a quote once that I now say all the time:
"Some people love money and use people; some people love people and use money."
I think it's obvious where MagPie people fall on this scale. I also think it's "sh*ting where you eat"
Twitter is the best place to spam.
Yeah, why do paid tweeting, when there are just jobs and money pouring out of the crevices of our booming economic society? Geez, stop typing with your pinky finger out, already.
We've had OMFG TWITTER TWITTER TWITTER rammed down our throats *endlessly*, and now the big media is on it, big corps, the small media, the republicans and democrats--even people on it because they are somehow just 'supposed to' be on it--and also OMFG TWITTER TWITTER TWITTER.
Exactly what did people expect, especially when making money is kinda important these days? Don't be so naive and offended, it makes you sound like a grandma. Twitter is not your lawn.
Big deal!
So there are ads on the internet. OMG, what next? Will ministers be asking for donations in Church to save your soul?
The Saints who run twitter are not doing it for community service!
Wow! Interesting scheme... I have seen a few others that looked like shameless shilling for other companies... Now I understand what is going on... Affiliate links? Well it just goes to show you that if there is something good going on, someone will figure out how to take advantage of it and try to sell something...lol...Thanks for scoping out the situation and letting us know... I don't think it will stop, I think it will just get worse... but it kind of kills the conversation with that twitter party, doesn't it???
In the Quest For The Almighty Dollar, this should surprise no one. I mean, seriously- Twitter is now being used as an ad-serving platform. Golly gee, who couldn't have seen that coming?
No media is safe from the ad zombies. None, nada, zip. They'd put flashing logos with testimonials on your feces if they could just figure out how.
I think what stuns me more than anything else in this thread is the number of people who don't see the problem here.
Don't get me wrong: I think advertising is great. But literally lying ("OMG, I bought and love this product!") is pretty despicable from every angle.
It floors me how people cannot tell the difference between this sort of deception (which tarnishes brands, misleads or annoys readers, and reflects poorly upon the person inserting the ad) and putting ads on a blog. These activities are not even close to the same thing.
Further, if you think my "soul" is on twitter... well... I've got all kinds of things to sell ya.
Come on people, the only reason we are even remotely happy with FB, Gmail, Hotmail, FREE internet access everywhere is due to advertising...
Plus, in this economy with most advertisers pulling out of print ads, and moving towards online ads, due to cost, more wonderful new FREE website will pop up all over...FREE for us that is, but will cost advertising money.
Collegiate Chris
Owner
Collegiate Living/>
I would be happier with this if Twitter were getting a cut! Its like watching advertisements on TV - a necessary evil.
I am a bit of a Twitter newbie but I do understand that people are sending me to sites to make money. That is the nature of the beast. I don't feel outrage I just move on quickly and are less likely to trust that person again. But that is advertising anyway.
Magpie has been around for many months but you wrote this like you just heard of them. Not exactly breaking news.
This is bogus. Apple has Apple TV not iTV
wow, I feel dirty after reading that. That's just disturbing. I actually did a search on Twitter with the same text in your examples, and sure enough it's true. Hundreds of them all worded the same. Amazing to see that @PCMagsTop10 actually got 2 Apple iTVs on sale. Bit odd that they as a company would say, "i got mine couple months ago. love it" http://bit.ly/2TlVSx. No wonder people resist you when you're trying to be kind or helpful. No wonder there's so much cynicism. It makes me sad. We need to do better than this! Thanks for sharing this, even though I really didn't like to hear it. :(
Thank you for posting this important bulletin about marketing spam on Twitter. Let's block and keep twitter free of shmutz.
"Update: As a number of commenters and at least one of these companies have pointed out, it's not the companies themselves buying these ads - it's most likely outside affiliates. So direct your frustration to whoever is in charge of affiliate programs at these companies, not in house ad buyers."
Well, I still have a problem with any company which would willingly allow it's affiliates to do stupid crap in this manner, and not speak out against it. I'm pretty sure these companies made something off this, at least 1 person must have clicked on one of the links, made a purchase, and brought profit to the company and affiliate. I don't want to hear a company say, "It's not my fault."
I just started using Magpie, and you left out a lot of important points:
* I pick and choose every single message to be posted. I only choose those that I actually would say myself.
* I pick the maximum frequency. Right now I have it set to every 10 or more tweets. That doesn't mean it will actually post that often, either, that is the MOST it will post. I'm finding it is much less frequently.
So Magpie is sending a couple of tweets in my name, that I have individually chosen, approved and personally believe myself. How is that different then me tweeting directly? Except it is easier.
I'm spending time putting quality info up on Twitter, and you begrudge me making some coffee money, apparently. As you promote your view on your blog, which has ads running on it ;-) How is that different?
So what is your problem, exactly?
Fred
I'm amazed they think this will work. If I notice people posting numerous template ad or spam posts that are of little interest to me I unfollow. I guess this could work if those involved were making an effort to disguise it, but it looks template enough for experienced twitter users to spot.
Let's hope this soon dies out from lack of response.
wow .. if i see the word "tweet" one more time.
i thought i was 100% against joining that damned cult before. POS.
Fredonline:
I just did a search for a specific magpie ad - http://search.twitter.com/search?q=an+online+number+lets+family+and+friends+call+you
Not a single one mentioned this was an ad.
If it were just one or two folks attempting to deceive people then I'd think, hey, maybe the problem isn't Magpie, maybe it's the abuse of their service. Blame the person, not the tool, right?
But when I see (from at least my quick glance) *100%* of the use of this service being deceptive, it suggests to me that the problem is deeper than a few bad apples.
magpie tweets are actually one of the more innovative ways of using social media - not to hype them up (their content is still very amateurish and klutzy, yes) but they are only doing what you do when you let Google or some other ad farm put a sidebar or banner on your blog.
Remember how outraged people were with banner ads, pop-under ads, pop-over ads, flash ads, mouse-over "information" pop-ups? You sound just like those outraged masses. And just like those outraged masses had the choice to visit a website or not, you have the choice to follow tweeters who inline a Magpie ad, or ignore Magpie tweets.
I could really care less either way, and whether someone inlines an ad or not, they get followed for their content not their ads, same as my choice in blogs and websites and everything else.
Take a deep breath, and repeat after me "There's always the delete button. There's always the delete button..."
Solution (assumes you don't have some sort of "autofollow" in place);
1. Check profile - hmmm, no avatar, bio, url.
2. % of following vs followed (usually hugely) unbalanced.
3. Tweets - spam spam spam spam spam, one or two inane "pesonal" tweets.
4. Block, report to @spam.
Done!
NB: haven't come across #48 style tweet yet, but that would be OK with me. At least it's transparent.
I currently follow one prolfile which often provides great tweets, but throws in a more than occasional tweet with link direct to their Amazon affiliate. One more and they are gone.
Exactly! Vapid, vile, stupid shilling!
Hate all forms of ads. One you have on top of the page from some sick company called hubspot.com nearly got me. Thought that was part of your website!
I could be dumb! but back in THOSE days banner ads used to have disclosures..
Never going to buy anything from hubspot...
disclosure...?? changes as technology cycle changes.. get it??
vapid, vile, stupid hubspot.....
...and there are also the Tweets we do to get stuff for free, like the recent MacHeist Tweet that gave us another couple of apps if we'd bought the Bundle then tweeted some canned text after following MacHeist on Twitter. Similar but not exactly the same since if you bought the product, you're essentially recommending it by sending the canned Tweet.
Wow... An Internet technology co-opted for spam purposes. I'm shocked... Shocked I tell you.
I'm amazed it took this long.
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