Earlier this year I posted a downloadable Twitter T-Shirt design on this blog. Variations of the design have popped up all over the place, including shirts from Shaw Collins, Laurie Pooh and Naoma Doriguzzi. It’s been awesome to see people using the file I provided, it took off way more than I expected. I thought I had seen it all, but this use of the design really “takes the cake”.
Happy birthday to Michael Brito! I wish I could have made the party buddy : )
Earlier today Pete Cashmore from Mashable did a post called “Twitter Ads are Evil”. The root of Pete’s argument is that paid endorsements destroy trust. While I personally like Pete I have to say he is completely off base on this one. Paid endorsements are a multi-billion dollar industry that includes the worlds biggest brands and celebrities. Matching the right brand with the right individual can create huge value for both parties and actually increase the trust amongst consumers and fans.
You trust Michael Jordan. You trust Gatorade. You trust Michael Jordan drinking Gatorade. You want to “Be Like Mike” and drink Gatorade. You know that money is changing hands but it doesn’t matter because the message is right and the product matches the endorser. Paid endorsements work in both mainstream media and traditional media. Don’t believe me? Ask Cali Lewis and Drobo or Robert Scoble and RackSpace.
We can argue about trust until the cows come home but that is not my real issue with this post. My issue is that all the arguments are completely hypocritical. Mashable has attacked twitter ads and other forms of sponsored conversations for the past few years….but guess what? Mashable runs sponsored tweets and posts. The only difference is that Mashable’s sponsored tweets drive traffic back to a sponsored post on Mashable.com. It’s not just an ad. It’s an ad that leads to another ad.
How about this out of place post on “The Social Media Guide” about black friday deals at Best Buy that just so happens to contain a giant Best Buy display ad?
Why is it OK for Mashable to make money from sponsored conversations while it is “evil” for other people to do it?
It’s hard to believe but Thanksgiving and Festivus are right around the corner. While the holidays are a time of celebration and full, bloated bellies for most they are a time of struggle for others. Way too many people don’t have food to put on the table year round, let alone the holidays. I am supporting Rock for Hunger again this month with a mini canned food drive to build up their reserves. My goal is to collect 200 cans of food this week to donate to this wonderful organization.
I will be at the downtown Orlando Pancheros this Friday from noon until 1:30 collecting cans of non-perishable food items. Every person that brings me 10 cans or more gets a free burrito on me. The person who brings me the most cans will win a $75 Pancheros gift card courtesy of my good friends at Pancheros. Second place gets a $25 Pancheros gift card. If you don’t do so already make sure you follow Pancheros on Twitter, they are good peeps and I appreciate them helping me out.
Let’s recap : You get a burrito. We feed the hungry. Everybody wins! Please help spread the word to your Orlando friends! It’s the season to give back.’
Our tweeps over at Wall Street have stepped up to help support the cause. Can’t make it for the 
main event and contest at Pancheros? Join us at happy hour from 4-9pm at WaiTiki on Wall Street this Friday. Free burrito or free booze for a great cause. You can’t go wrong. Want to know what is happening in dowtown orlando? Follow @wallstplaza
I realize that not all of you live in Orlando, but may like to help out. I have great news… you can contribute from anywhere in the world! For every 10 comments left on this blog post (by a unique person) I will buy a burrito gift card that will be donated to Rock for Hunger. They can use these cards to treat the hungry to a fantastic warm meal filled with cheesy goodness.
Too lazy to leave a comment? Just hit the retweet button on the top of this page and share with your friends.
Want to help even more? Write a blog post and spread the word. For every blog post that pings back this post I will buy a burrito gift card for the hungry as well. I will buy up to 100 burrito giftcards for comments, rewtweets and pingbacks. Together we can help feed a lot of hungry people.
One of the arguments that I hear from people when they talk about Sponsored Tweets is that you will lose followers if you participate. It’s total #bullshite from people who have no real experience with sponsored conversations. They make assumptions about how things work and how people will react without taking the time to try it for themselves and perfect the practice.
These are not “social media experts”. Experts have actual experience with the tools and concepts they speak about. These are social media donkeys, following the herd blindly through the echo-chamber that is the blogosphere.
What? Yeah. People actually find value in the sponsored tweets I share. So much so that they retweet them and thank me for “for the find”. I am not going to say I haven’t lost a few followers here and there, to be honest I have no idea. What I do know is I continue to gain followers and I have never had anyone complain about one of my sponsored tweets. Not only that, I have personally found some awesome new services from SponsoredTweets.com that I now love and use including Alice.com.
Have you ever been to a website or blog that had blinking “punch the monkey” banner ads all over it? How about an adsense explosion? It happens. It doesn’t mean that display ads are bad, it just means they can be overused, misused or abused (like any form of advertising).
In Sponsored Tweets you have the ability to choose which advertisers you work with and how the message is shared (which is more than I can say for adsense). I am a proud Sponsored Tweets user and I am very selective on which advertisers I work with. It turns out so are the rest of you. Less than 50% of offers made to Tweeters in SponsoredTweets.com are accepted. It’s not a question of money, it’s a question of finding the right fit for you and your followers.
Don’t let inexperienced fear mongers ruin a great financial opportunity for you. Let’s look at this objectively:
Worst Case
You sign up and never find an advertiser that is a fit. Nothing happens.
Best Case
You connect with lots of advertisers and make huge bank doing what you love.
Most Likely
You connect with a moderate amount of advertisers you like and earn some extra spending money.
A few weeks ago at IZEAFest Aaron Brazell spoke briefly about the concept of entitlement as it relates to influencers. Aaron’s point was simple, you aren’t entitled to anything and should be thankful for everything. I agree with Aaron 100%
In my role at IZEA I work with beginning bloggers to celebrities and everything in between. I have to say that I have noticed a disturbing trend over the past few years across the entire social media spectrum. As the demand for bloggers and tweeters has increased so has the size of their heads. I am sad to say that many of the people I network with have become downright ungrateful. The inflation of entitlement far outpaces the true value of the people who display these behaviors.
Don’t confuse entitlement with value. You should always negotiate the best deal possible for yourself and I would never suggest otherwise. However, the manner in which you negotiate your terms and interact with your business associates makes a huge difference. I don’t care who you are… nobody owes you anything. Not a business opportunity, a free ticket, a free meal, a free drink or even a kind word. Everything somebody does for you is done because they want to.
I don’t do business with people because of who they are, I do business with people because of what they are. While your stature may initially open the door it is your actions that keep the relationship progressing forward.
One of my favorite bloggers is Drew from BenSpark.com. He has worked his way up the blogging ranks over the past few years but has always remained grounded. At BlogWorld Ben brought me an ice cream cone. He saw that I was trapped in my booth and I hadn’t had anything to eat. First of all I want to say THANK YOU AGAIN. Second I want to say holy crap, how nice was that of you? I am not entitled to that sort of treatment and I truly appreciate it.
Even though Drew has become a big blogger he still does and says the things that he has always done. He is just a good all around guy, someone I met through business and now consider a friend. The door remains open for Drew because he doesn’t believe he is entitled. He gives back more than he gets and I would do anything for the guy.
If you have made a name for yourself congratulations! I am happy for you and I hope it brings much prosperity. Just remember what got you there and that it could all be gone tomorrow.
There are just some things I really can’t stand doing. I wish that there was a way to pay other people to do these things but I haven’t been able to figure that out (yet). Here is a list of things I would gladly hire someone else to do for me:
How about you? Anything you wish you could pay people to do in your place? Help me build out the ultimate list.
This is a sponsored guest post written by Zac Johnson on behalf of Sponsored Tweets. Post powered by Sponzai
A couple weeks ago I signed up with Sponsored Tweets, a new program available through Izea. The concept of Sponsored Tweets is simply… get paid to send out tweets through Twitter. Since joining, I’ve had several opportunities come through, and have already made several hundreds of dollars. Here’s a bit more on the site and how you can make money too. View Sponsored Tweets
How does Sponsored Tweets work?
Everything about Sponsored Tweets is very simple and easy to setup. You create your account, and login with your same Twitter account info (through Twitter). Once your account is created, you just need to set how much you want to be paid per tweet, and then you wait for a new opportunity to come in. When you receive a new opportunity, you just need to approve or deny the tweet. Some advertisers write what they want you to say, but many leave that up to the tweeter. You submit the “tweet” for approved, and once approved, the money is deposit into your account.
Is this allowed by Twitter, and Ethical?
To answer the most important question, YES! This is allowed by Twitter! and Sponsored Tweets mentions this several times on their web site, as they have worked with Twitter through the process of making the site. As for being “ethical”, there is full disclosure. When a tweet is sent through Sponsored Tweets, it is seen on twitter as “sponsored by…“, “Ad“, or “brought to you by..“. It’s this full disclosure that keeps the tweeter, the advertiser and the reader all legit.
What does a “sponsored tweet” look like?
Depending on whether or not your advertisers provides an ad copy, your tweet can look like anything. Whatever you submit will be sent over to Sponsored Tweets for approval. Other than that, it will look like a regular tweet going out through your account. The only difference is that the url is through bit.ly and instead of being posted from “web” or “tweetdeck”, it says “from Sponsored Tweets“… as it should for full disclosure.
Is anyone making Money with Sponsored Tweets?
As mentioned, in just my first couple of weeks, I’ve made an extra few hundred bucks just for a few minutes of my time approving ads, and I have a fairly small twitter following. ShoeMoney also posted about how he has earned thousands from tweeting advertiser links independently and through Sponsored Tweets.
Who else is partnered with Sponsored Tweets?
There are actually a decent amount of big name tweeters already signed on with Sponsored Tweets. I haven’t seen a way to signup online (have to call) as an Advertiser to access a full list of tweeters available, but they do have the following “featured tweeters” listed in the login area. Some of these accounts (like Kim Kardashian) have over 2 million followers.
That’s a quick summary of what Sponsored Tweets is all about, and how it’s making money and driving leads through Twitter. It’s fairly new, and always great to get into a new revenue source on the bottom floor.
I had some time to do a little cooking this past weekend and decided to make a video for my magic ribs. Unfortunately I got so excited that I forgot to film a proper ending… but I can assure you that these things are fall off the bone pork-awesomeness.
Easiest directions ever:
What if you could rock out your business, event or blog and do something great for the community at the same time? This is your chance. I am working with Rock For Hunger to end the cycle of hunger and poverty through education, life style design and career development solutions. This is the same organization that I helped with the bathtub full of cereal earlier in the year.
I have put a day of my time up for auction on eBay. The entire proceeds of the auction will be donated to Rock For Hunger. You can use the time as you see fit. Whether you want some consulting, a blog design, logo or speaking I am up for it. I am happy to talk about any of the following topics:
– Entrepreneurial business advice
– Social media strategy
– Internet marketing strategy
– Web design and usability
– Personal or corporate branding
– Corporate culture development
– Raising venture capital / business funding
– Disrupting your industry
– General awesomeness
I will fly to any location in the world. Transportation and lodging needs to be provided by the winner of this auction.
You can use the time virtually or in person. If you use it in person you get me for one day, one shot (9am-6pm), unless you live in Orlando. If you ask me to work with you virtually we can do that in 1 hour increments.
Today is off to an awesome start! I got in a 6 mile run. Tara hooked me up with a new set of luggage. My IZEA peeps trashed my desk. I did an television interview. My article in Fast Company came out (thank you @LydiaBreakfast and @ChrisBrogan)… and it isn’t even 10am yet.
All was going great…. until my brother sent me this video to remind me what he made for me last year. Update : the video he sent me has been taken offline : (
Presents are great, but I am content with my worldly possessions. All I really want is pictures from the people that read this blog and follow me on twitter with their tongues out like. I am going to do a follow up post with all the pics sent to me, along with links to the creators. Leave a comment here or @ me on Twitter.
