Twitter Meets Multi-Level Marketing = Tweetglide [Review]

November 3, 2009

Tweetglide. The new Tweetdeck killer. Or so they would have you believe…

Picture 20 Last week, I got an email from Mike Filsaime. Now, Mike is a well-known internet marketer. I follow the world of internet marketing. After all, I’m, too, a marketer. What was surprising about this email from Mike was that he was talking about his new Twitter app – Tweetglide. This spiked my curiosity because “Mike Filsaime” and “Twitter app” just don’t go together in my mind.

Tweetglide is developed on Adobe AIR, just like Tweetdeck. The website is impressive. So, I was both surprised and impressed to see a guy like Filsaime getting involved in mainstream social media to this degree. He’s even got an Iphone version coming.

When you first open the app, you’ll immediately see that this was designed by a marketer. You’ll get a one-time offer (OTO) to upgrade to the “pro” account for $97. This will give you 500 ad credits and allow you to do things like customize your ad to make it stand out. Which brings me to the major difference between Tweetglide and another client…

Advertising on Twitter

Picture 19 Essentially, by using Tweetglide, you are able to send out advertisements for your own stuff. Plus, in an MLM approach, you can actually create your own downline and have your referrals help you earn more ad views. So, you’ll earn ad credits by:

  • Tweeting. If you send 5 tweets in 3 hours (just normal conversation, not ads), you’ll earn an ad credit which shows your ad. They smartly put a cap on this, so tweeting 100 times isn’t going to earn you more ad views. No spam there.
  • You refer people to Tweetglide and you get credit for all the tweet activity of your downline, up to 4 levels down. 5 tweets from you or anybody in your downline earns you an ad view.
  • You can also pay for sponsored ads with Tweetglide.

Now, all of this uses the Tweetglide application to display advertising. What is unique about this is that the sponsored tweets show up in a separate column which you can close if you want. Now, I don’t believe you’ll get any credits if you shut down the sponsored column, but it will allow you to simply use Tweetglide as a Twitter client without using all this other stuff. The column separation also makes Tweetglide comply with the new FTC disclosure rules since we clearly know that these are sponsored messages.

Tweetdeck Versus Tweetglide

This app immediately will make you think of Tweetdeck. It uses columns in the same exact fashion. But, how else does it compare?

Picture 18

Like Tweetdeck, you have columns for all tweets, replies, DMs, etc. You can set up your own groups if you want, however it doesn’t appear to save those groups to any servers for sync purposes.

You can fully manage your Twitter profile from inside of Tweetglide. You can follow/unfollow/block users. You can tap into the common URL shorteners and view click-through stats inside the app (nice touch). It doesn’t have all the options of Tweetdeck yet, but I’m guessing it’ll get there.

The interface is a little bubbly compared to Tweetdeck.

One thing that annoyed me quite a bit about Tweetglide was the ease of tweeting out affiliate promos for Tweetglide itself. 3 separate times I accidently tweeted out my affiliate link when I didn’t intend to. That needs to be changed.

Daddy Like?

At the end of the day, what’s my verdict on Tweetglide?

Picture 21 Well, I’m impressed, but I’m not quite feeling it.

I think the model is fairly innovative if your purpose is to promote yourself. I think the marketing aggressiveness is a little ill-placed on the Twitter audience, however. Twitter is about being social, not overt marketing. And, as of now, Tweetglide is designed for overt marketing. It is far too easy to promote your affiliate link. The OTO on initial launch is going to immediately put a bad taste in the mouth of many Twitter users.

Due to the nature of internet marketing, you’re going to see most people out there singing the praises of Tweetglide. They’ll all be sporting their affiliate link, of course. I’ve even seen some call it the Tweetdeck replacement. That’s overkill and I think its being said as a way to earn more commissions, quite frankly.

As I see it, the audience who will end up using Tweetglide are the people who are using Twitter for the wrong reasons – to pimp their stuff. The sponsored ad column is already full of “make money” stuff (as I would expect).

It comes down to the overall vibe. As an app, Tweetglide is actually pretty good. As an innovative business model – check. It most certainly is. It is the first client to have a separate column for sponsored messages and that alone is innovative.

There are a LOT of people on Twitter who are not into affiliate marketing and MLM, however. And, for those people, I just don’t think Tweetglide will sit well.

As for me, I’m sticking with Tweetdeck as my main Twitter client. I might play around with Tweetglide from time to time. I like using Twitter a better way – to build relationships. The money stuff comes second.

If you want to check out Tweetglide for yourself, click here.

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  • This whole "Tweetglide" thing reminds me of the "safe list" concept. You know, get on the list and agree to receive junk email in exchange for the privilege of...sending junk email to everyone else.

    Yuck.

    -Erica
  • Conceptually I'm a fan of the MLM business model. The problem is the low bar to entry. Most MLM opportunities (such as this one) have ridiculously easy entry requirements. Basically anyone who wants in, can get in. That makes sense to the owner or president of the MLM and to a few of the founding distributors, but it doesn't make sense to anyone else, including the end users.

    Unfortunately MLM forums of all sorts (and it sounds like Tweetglide is already proving to be the same) are often completely overrun with spam, produced by people in it only to "get rich quick". I'd love to see someone found a rockin, credible and well-run network marketing company. Looks like Tweetglide is not up to par. I appreciate the review! BTW, I'm totally cool with people choosing to monetize Twitter if they so choose. Just sayin, Tweetglide will not likely be one of my tools of choice.
  • Tweetglide is really better than tweetdeck It work so well and very impressive.
  • I just wanted to give you a shoutout David. You are a remarkable blogger and a role model to me! Thanks so much!
    Sincerely,
    Ben Lang
  • Excellent review. I like keeping track of Filsaime. He's aggressive and willing to push on the boundaries. Somebody has to do it, and he's the right man for that job. If nobody pushes boundaries, we won't know where they are.

    Also, social media snobs seem to forget how easy it is to simply NOT follow someone. Or just close down their feeds. I've got my open personally-branded feed, and I have my personal feed... which is blocked! Much easier than complaining about it.
  • mikefilsaime
    Hey

    Mike FIlsaime here.

    I just want to let you know that we are looking to the main stream market.

    So, we ask when you join

    [ ] I am an internet marketer ow would like to be one.

    If you select NO, then you DO NOT SEE the One-Time-Offer (OTO) and the APP boots up with the ads column turned off. They would have to OPT to turn them on.

    I have said many times, for the MARKETERS that use it, it is a way to encourage them ti tweet normal conversation knowing their advertising will go in a sponsored column for those that wish to see it.

    Thanks for the great review. And thanks for trying TweetGlide

    Mike Filsaime
  • Thanks for the input, Mike. Yeah, I did check that I'm an internet marketer, so perhaps that's why I saw all that.

    I look forward to watching changes in the product. I'm really impressed to see you getting into this particular market.
  • mikefilsaime
    :)

    I am excited to try to create something main stream. It will be interesting to see where it goes.
  • kevengladeson
    Why are you such a pussy in your reply, David? It sounds like you were surprised that Filsaime (or, more likely, someone on his staff) jumped to reply to your critical review and now you try to appease the big bad "aggressive" Filsaime machine by saying you are "really impressed."

    Be a man, David. Your review correctly rebuked Filsaime for polluting the social media stream with ugly advertisements that add no value to the fundamental underlying conversation but seek only to profit from it like a parasite.
  • WTF?

    I said this in my review:
    "It comes down to the overall vibe. As an app, Tweetglide is actually pretty good. As an innovative business model – check. It most certainly is. It is the first client to have a separate column for sponsored messages and that alone is innovative."

    This isn't an attack column on Tweetglide or Mike Filsaime. I pointed out the problems I see with it. And I am impressed that he even bothered with this market.

    I'm not impressed that Filsaime commented here. Anybody who knows how to use Google Alerts would know when their name is mentioned.

    Jeez, dude. Don't be a dick.
  • That is a great point that you made David about building relationships. Most people now a days are definitely using the social networks for the wrong reasons. It continues to get worse each and every day and I would not be surprised if Twitter and Facebook started banning people from using their services due to blanten spamming
  • David don't you think that everyone is ready to attach twitter. But this is really nice to see that twitter is going strong with this.
  • You echo my initial thoughts on the app. I take great effort to stay laser focused on my own projects, and I filter out ads as much as possible. Having a column with ads glaring at me was not something I saw as being conducive to staying laser focused! And you know Im a MLM list builder. TweetGlide still didn't 'do it' for me!
  • HerrinL
    Good review and I will be well and truly avoiding this one. Thanks for saving me the time!
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