Selling Yourself On Twitter
Promoted Tweets. Promoted Trends. But how about Promoted Accounts? How do you feel about people and brands being able to pay to be on a suggested user list?
Jason Calacanis has been arguing for this for at least two years at this point. And I guess if you have the money, why not? But I have two questions for everyone. One, does it negate the social media gospel to pay to get followers? And two, is it worth the money in the end to get what will be essentially be masses of unengaged followers?
I'm divided on this one.
Bob
Jason Calacanis has been arguing for this for at least two years at this point. And I guess if you have the money, why not? But I have two questions for everyone. One, does it negate the social media gospel to pay to get followers? And two, is it worth the money in the end to get what will be essentially be masses of unengaged followers?
I'm divided on this one.
Bob
Tags: promoted+accounts, promoted+trends, promoted+tweets, social+media, twitter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Kunz on -
I don't have a problem with this, because it seems a straightforward proposition. "Here's a brand, they've paid for placement, and if you are interested you can follow them." The source is straightforward, it's opt-in, and it doesn't misrepresent the source of a message as sponsored tweets do.
Sponsored tweets, or such posts, are more nefarious because they create confusion -- "You really should by Kunz Apples #ad" from @benkunz creates cognitive dissonance, because you, Bob, wonder, does Ben really like Kunz apples or is he selling Kunz apples because he is paid to do so, and you're frankly not sure. I've had this beef with @armano recently who keeps tweeting about "Blackberry (client)" ... so is the news about Blackberry really of value, or is Blackberry paying David in exchange for slightly bending his Twitter stream? (No offense, David, but it's devaluing your voice man...).
I don't care if someone pays to become a suggested user, because in my mind that's simple paying for position -- what advertising has always done. It's only when you pay to bend a message, making the source of such message unclear, do you start to "trick" users ... and that devalues individual voices and the communications ecosystem as a whole.
My two cents. By the way, Kunz apples are great.
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Permalink Reply by Bob Knorpp on -
Well, let's not confused "Sponsored Tweets" from "promoting my client on Twitter." Sponsored Tweets is simply a matter of inserting a promotional tweet from the brand itself into my stream because I'm having a related conversation about the brand or its product. For me, this doesn't seem nefarious. Maybe a little intrusive, but what advertising isn't intrusive?
What you're describing though does potentially lead to credibility issues. While I disagree with your thoughts on David Armano specifically, I've seen many examples where it just feels icky. There is a fine line between talking about your client and shilling for your client.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Bob
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