I am also wondered by reading this post.My one friend told me this but i did not believe him.This seems new idea to promote twitter.Thank you for sharing this post

David, as a matter of fact, this strategy has been used in the past by The Warner Channel in Brazil to promote the TV Show "Gossip Girl". Warner channel had several google ads with "gossips" about different bloggers and all of those took people to their twitter page. I turned to be really profitable for them as when the show launched here in Brazil last year they had more than 5k followers, but mainly they benefited from the word of mouth since many bloggers noticed and created a post similar to yours, generating lots of traffic to their website.
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/rafaelzi...

I think the campaign can be really profitable if they achieve exactly this, to get bloggers to blog about their "crazy" idea.
Anyways, Kudos to Dolphini for trying to innovate, however it was not that original as they thought..

Thank you David. Did I mention that we would love it if you would follow us on www.Twitter.com/Dolphini ? Please remember that we do website hosting!

Is that how the hard sale is done? LOL!

Michael Krause
Chief of W.E.I.T.!
www.Dolphini.com

Krause: Thanks for responding. I must say, I was a bit hopeful that you would. I made this blog post in order to raise the question. The question over ROI was mainly out of curiosity. It is pretty clear you're going for the relationship and that is indeed the true nature of social media. So, well done on doing it that way. I actually think that Dolphini might be blazing new territory and I find it pretty interesting.

Best of luck.

Interesting, the way most have viewed what Dolphini has done so far ... PCP for Tweets?

We at www.Dolphini.com veiw our relationships with our clients of our services different than your bloggers.

Dolphini does not have to worry about ROI when it comes to communications, relationships or (in your terms) ROI. Dolphini focuses on PEOPLE. We care deeply about who and how we do business. We take tremedous pride in each and every account - no matter what the amount of the account!

When our clients need help, Dolphini is there! It does not matter if it is small hosting account, Managed Dedicated Servers, Colocation or Managed Services ... Dolphini will take care of our clients.

Therefore your desires of knowledge for our ROI is not the question you should be asking for your business. The question(s):
- How much of your effort does it take to place a smile on someones face when you provide your services to fit there needs?
- How many gravel roads do you take prior to learning the true value of relationships is not ROI?
- How much of your services to you provide before you realize, you will do "W.E.I.T." (What Ever It Takes) to keep the relationships with your community? (People, Friends, Co-workers - that should be friends)

"People don't like to be sold, but they love to BUY!" - Jeffrey Gitomer

"Take care of the PEOPLE and the money will follow!" - Michael Krause

You are correct, we do not hard sale on Twitter, we help other people on Twitter, provide our annoucements for all the events we support for our clients, and all-ways continue to grow our relationships via Twitter and other communication tools. There is your ROI, in the PEOPLE!

There is no right way or wrong way of using Twitter, just the people you follow.

Now, I know as the owner of Dolphini that some of you are still asking "but really, what is the ROI?" Well, if done right, the ROI is EXTREMEMLY PROFITABLE - IN RELATIONSHIPS. If you have the relationship with that person and you have already helped them in the past, who are they going to turn to when they are ready to buy? Hopefully, you.

Thank you all for your nice comments and David for bringing up the topic in a nice way. I have heard several different reasons regarding our "PCP for Tweets". This is the only one I have answered.

Btw "Niche Titans", we prefer "Total Genius" :-)

Michael Krause
Chief of W.E.I.T.!
www.Dolphini.com

I don't know... I guess it COULD be profitable... either they'll be morons or total genius for trying....

Interesting idea. I wonder too what their ROI would be? Hopefully there will be a follow up to this post with some figures. =)

When I first read this I thought "That's crazy" why pay for something that you can grow organically for free. But the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense, if they are using Twitter in the right way and are able to convert some relationships into sales this may be a very cheap way to get high quality leads. It would all come down to how much they pay for the ad, how well they foster the relationships, and how well those relationships convert to sales. Interesting, but the verdict is still out.

Matt

It could be a useful channel for some businesses that aren't commodity driven. My guess is that a co-location center would be better off driving prospects to their own site where they could stress the benefits of cost, security, reliability and service. But assuming that they are doing so elsewhere it is probably a good idea to try attracting twitter lovers also and making your arguments in tweets. Would love to know their cost but follower through AdWords.

This is new and very good CMS,
Dolphin really smart.. and
i think you help him too.. :D