Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Sponsored Tweets: Polluting The Party?

August 20, 2009 | Feature, Social Media

The idea of sponsored tweets usually triggers a pretty emotional reaction. Most people when asked how they would react to a person tweeting an ad respond by saying they would immediately unfollow them.

Then my friend Ted Murphy launched Sponsored Tweets, the latest venture from his company Izea. It got me thinking about it. After all, I really like Ted and I have a lot of respect for him as an entrepreneur.

So, is this Sponsored Tweets thing a huge pile of crap? Or a natural progression of the medium?

Dicey Territory

You can clearly see how this is a dicey subject by looking at their own top menu bar:

Picture 5

An “Ethics” tab, right there plain as day. On that page, it clearly states that Izea requires people to disclose their relationship with marketers.

Picture 6 When an ad is set up in the system, one of the provided phrases must be selected to identify the tweet as an ad. The phrase uses various versions of the word “sponsored” or “advertisement”. The shortest possible version is the #ad hashtag.

As a tweeter, you will sign up, set your price, your ad category, keywords, etc. So, they give you control over the kinds of ads which appear in your tweet stream.

Also, Izea will not auto-inject ads into your Twitter stream. You have to manually approve it first.

In looking over their setup, it seems Izea has done everything to make this an honest platform. I really have no problem with their set up.

However, this doesn’t answer the question of whether it is a smart move for you to actually use it. How about that?

The Knee Jerk Kicks Back

The knee jerk reaction I often see goes something like this:

If I see an ad, I will immediately unfollow that person.

My job is to get you thinking, however. So, let me kick back.

There are an awful lot of bloggers out there who put ads on their blogs or in their RSS feeds. As readers, we follow these bloggers because they are interesting and offer something of value. Yet, we accept the fact that ads are a fact of life.

We use email every day to keep up with friends and colleagues. We accept the fact that when we sign up for a mailing list for a site we like that we may get some sales pitches every now and then. We expect them to obey their privacy policy and remain ethical, but in exchange for getting useful emailed content sent to us, we may get a few ads. No big deal.

When we listen to a radio show, our favorite TV program, a podcast, etc, we accept the fact that ads are a fact of life.

OK, so let’s look at Twitter. It is a stream of content from a person we follow. If we look at our acceptance of ads in other mediums, is it then inconsistent to get pissed off about it on Twitter?

My View

First of all, I will go on record now that I am not using Sponsored Tweets nor do I plan to.

I personally think that having sponsored tweets on my tweet stream is socially awkward. After all, I follow along with people like Perry Belcher in viewing Twitter like a big party. When we walk up to a person at a party, we want to have a conversation with that person. However, if that person, every 5 minutes, would interrupt the conversation to pitch me a product, I would probably think the guy went bonkers and I’d walk away.

I guess it comes down to the purpose of your Twitter account. I use my Twitter account to be personal, to make connections with people on a personal level. It is not appropriate for me to put ads in there. My Twitter account is not equated to a TV show or even to my own blog.

If somebody, however, was using Twitter more for non-personal purposes, I really don’t see a problem with it. For example, @mashable is used primarily to tweet the latest posts from Mashable. Now, that website has ads. Their RSS feed probably has ads. Their Twitter stream having ads seems only natural.

So, it is a personal choice and I think it ultimately comes down to the purpose for your Twitter account.

Sponsored Tweets is a natural progression of the evolution of Twitter as a medium. That said, users of Twitter need to think before using it. Twitter is a different animal than other more traditional content channels and the rules are different. It is a SOCIAL medium, so just think before you decide to inject ads into it.

What Do You Think?

Post a comment and let me know your thoughts about Sponsored Tweets. Is it an automatic black-eye to tweet an ad? Or are you willing to overlook it as something which is going to happen sooner or later?

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  • dragonblogger
    I think its great that advertisers can reject your submissions if they don't like it, the system is well thought out. It is of real benefit only to people who have a massive twitter following. People with less than 5000 followers really have little chance to make any money from it. I have tested a few paid tweets, but only accept ones that fit my blog theme and that I feel like promoting.

    In your scenario above you talked about using Twitter as if you were at a scene in a party, but if somebody likes a product like their car, television set, or even a movie, they would mention it if the situation or discussion hit the same topic base, so it is okay to have the occasional ad as long as its done ethically and you are promoting a product you are comfortable promoting.

    So far advertisers have come to me, and the ones that have do have interesting products. I always visit their website first and make the decision if I want to promote them or not. Its been a win/win so far, but my following is small so the payouts are tiny.
  • I don't think I will keep following someone who posts very many ads. It's as bad as someone who tweets every half hour or reports what they are eating for breakfast.

    I love the new blog look. It's very clean and emphasizes your posts. Good stuff!
  • I can't ever imagine using the service, but I really don't have a problem with some businesses using it. I probably would have an issue if a bunch of my friends started displaying ads in all their post though... as that would bug me.
  • I guess it is all about what kind of expectations we have towards ads.

    If I go to the movie theater, I know there will be a sequence with ads ahead of the movie. When I watch a show on TV I know there will be some advertising in between. And when you watch SuperBowl advertising is almost a part of the gimmick there, and you end up talking almost as much about the ads as the game the day after.

    As long as Twitter is a open and Free community, I think it will be hard to ban advertising there. But the question is more how do we find a balance there without being spammy.

    I think the Sponsored Tweet concept look much better then other 'sponsored' tweet concept I have seen. Magpie and Tweetad I signed up with so I had an idea of what this is all about. Don't like to much 'forced' ads, so I don't use those. So there is room for improvement for these kind of services. If there is a market for this, or they will die out I don't know..

    I think I am also ok with a tweet that is clearly marked with an #ad. As long as they don't overdo it.

    Cheers.. Are
  • As with anything you are going to have people for it and have them against it. I think the way Ted has went about this is the most ethical way. Disclosure is the main key, let people know that you are getting paid tweet the ad. Commercials on TV, Radio are sponsored advertisements. There are also ads in the Newspaper, ads in the mail you even find them on the windshield of your car. I feel that if someone were to not follow someone because they posted a well written sponsored tweet then they are running from reality. Advertising has been a part of the past, the present and most surely will be a part of the future on web.

    Good Post!
  • David,
    This is a well written, balanced post. We spent a lot of cycles on Sponsored Tweets addressing the obvious concerns most people have. While we still have some work to do, but I am pretty happy with the initial release.

    I think it is important to recognize that Sponsored Tweets cannot replace ongoing relationships between Tweeters and brands. I view our platform as a vehicle for advertisers to start a conversation and engage potential advocates. We encourage advertisers and tweeters to follow each other to start a relationship, even at the risk of cutting ourselves out of future transactions.

    I liken the options to search engine marketing. You have purists on the paid side and the organic side, but the most effective marketers understand how and when to use each approach.
  • I actually just wrote a similar post a few days ago and I have pretty much the same stance as you do. There's not really a whole lot wrong about sponsored tweets - at least there is full disclosure and it's more transparent than posting affiliate links.

    Problem is though, that neither approach is really what you should be using twitter for and the short term gain may jeopardise your relationships on twitter.

    I wouldn't necessarily unfollow somebody just for 1 or 2 foul posts, but consistent junk will certainly turn me away.
  • gregellison
    I think it is OK to do a sponsored tweet. It is just like a sponsored paid post. I saw shoe's post and it showed how much he made and it is like $2,000. I don't think a lot of us can ever make that much from Sponsored Tweets, but we can try. Greg Ellison
  • Sponsored tweets won't ever work in my opinion. It's severely short sighted to think $35 a tweet could ever be more valuable than the long term business relationships that can be created & supported by using twitter as a relationship building tool.

    This is another perfect example of "old school" marketing attempting to lay their "one way communication" on top of a 2 way (Or group) communication tool like twitter. When it doesn't work because people revolt they will get the hint. Just my two sense worth.
  • I can't imagine that anybody would ever pay me to Tweet, but I really don't have a problem with this.

    If I see the occasional #ad tweet from someone, that's fine with me. If it sounds interesting, I'll probably even click it, if it doesn't then I'll ignore it.

    It really isn't a big deal, any more than the ads on our blogs and our feeds are.
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