I had a discussion with Brian Morrissey of AdWeek yesterday about the upcoming launch of Sponsored Tweets. To be honest I didn’t expect a story to be published just a few hours later. The site is still in development and not available to the public. I didn’t share very much about the service and had nothing visually to show him in terms of how it would work. However, the blogosphere is abuzz this morning with many sites echoing the same story. You can check out some coverage here:
Do we plan on launching a solution that allows people to monetize their twitter influence? Yes. Are we trying to do so in a way that provides disclosure, autheticity, freedom of voice, ROI for advertisers and some level of moderation? Yes. It’s not an easy thing to do, but we have been playing around with Twitter publisher monetization models for some time now. The goal is to best serve tweeters, advertisers and readers.
I have always been open to discussion on any topic. There is more than one way to approach this and I am all ears. If anyone wants to do an interview, podcast or just talk shop drop me a line at ted@izea.com and we will schedule something soon.
Sponsored tweets are unethical, unless mentioning within that tweet that it is sponsored. I didn’t realize until today that some people are doing this. It’s annoying. It’s the same as a blogger getting paid to give a product a rave review. I won’t do it. I talk about things that I like on my own–not things that I’m paid to PRETEND to like. Of course, in this day & age, ethics make you no money, it seems.
@Beth:
You should take a look at the other articles. Every tweets is disclosed as sponsored.
Ted, the 1st comment and much of the twitter chatter today is once again uninformed and biased. Sponsored posts are happening on twitter right now. The difference is that the one coming from IZEA are disclosed, yet IZEA which required disclosure keeps getting crapped on for past mistakes from YEARS ago.
The twitter rabble rose up today gathered their torches and pitchforks and went after IZEA once again with no true information other than sponsored tweets are coming.
They are already here and they are disclosed by IZEA.
as I just commented on twitter (http://twitter.com/thepalephantom/status/2046235640):
if you banish all the “sponsored tweet” services that are open and require disclosure, you are left with services that are closed and hidden.
Ah. More than 140 characters…
You want to monetize Twitter? That’s fine. I don’t have a problem with the concept – heck, tweet away. It is good that they are marked, but it doesn’t really matter to me.
I use Twitter to connect to a larger community of my peers, not to become some part of a “mass global network” where the concept of sponsored tweets would even come into play. I recognize not everyone is part of that – and that’s what’s great about twitter – if I don’t want to hear it, I don’t have to, and it’s no harm, no foul.
I follow you and several other Izea people because I like what you post. But if I start seeing people I follow tweet sponsored tweets, I will definitely hover over that unfollow button.
So monetize away – I hope you all do well. But I find it distasteful and tacky. If my friends came up and told me about a restaurant, and I found out that they were being paid to tell me about it – even if they told me they were being paid, I would lose a great deal of respect for them.
Which is probably why I’m not in sales.
Ready to go skipper, where do we sign up. Ted you are the man with cool ideas….Let us know how we can help you
@BenSpark I don’t think that being insulting is a great way to market Izea or to bring others on board with what you & Ted are doing. If your idea is so great and you are making bank off of it, who cares what we “biased, uninformed” users think?
I follow Ted on Twitter and I enjoy many of the things he tweets about–I’m just not sure I’m on board with sponsored tweets, especially now that I’m noticing quite a few coming from people I follow that are missing the “#spon”.
It’s a difference of opinion–nothing more, nothing less.
Ted! I am VERY excited to hear that you are going to be offering a sponsored tweet service. You guys definitely excel at providing great marketing opportunities for advertisers and equally great money-making opportunities for bloggers, so I am sure you will rock the sponsored tweet world.
I’m currently using be-a-magpie.com for sponsored tweeting, but as things haven’t been panning out all that well, I’m definitely excited for what IZEA will have in mind!
P.S. Full disclosure rocks! I have nothing against sponsored tweets that use a tag or beginning or ending comment that denotes them as being sponsored.
Check out sponsored tweets. I’m making extra money and you can too! http://t.co/gNLjIfcL #ad