The Latest Twitter Advertising Trend

The latest trend to hit Twitter land is a new type of ad network offering to pay Twitter members to serve up ads using their accounts by becoming a publisher. I have received a few links promoting this type of arrangement in the past but last week adCause announced its new service that has gained some attention. They pay publishers based on popularity. While Twitter has yet to monetize their own network, there are others swooping in to do just that. If it works there will be plenty jumping in line to join the ranks, but I am not convinced the concept will be effective.

At a time when Twitter is taking over as one of the fasted forms of communication with a way of sweeping the latest news such as the US Airways Flight 1549, which crashed into the Hudson River recently. Posts of such news breaking events are making their way quickly through Tweets, often times before major news organizations can provide coverage. There is an awesome power in this concept as people share information, being able to tap into that distribution channel with a branded message would certainly help any organization looking to boost their sales.

However, the users of these social communities typically regard them as a safe zone, so to speak, from advertising, not that it doesn’t exists as there are plenty of people pitching themselves or their products but the participants have the option to follow or not. Since the community is self regulated it would seem a certain risk exists from negative perception of all parties that choose to participate in transparent ad serving. From an advertising perspective, those who decide to endeavor into these waters run the risk of alienating the very ones they are targeting as customers. Not to mention the Twitter members signing up to profit from their connection list which may end up dwindling if they are perceived as nothing more than spammers.

I personally will pass on offering my account as ad revenue.