It seems you can make a little spare change off Twitter, if you’re willing to advertise in your stream. SFGate writes about Twitterers who are making between 20 and 80 cents per click-thru-ad. The companies Sponsored Tweets, My Likes, and Ad.ly have started Twitter-based ad platforms. Apparently, this is cool with Twitter, as long as the sponsored tweets end with (ad) or #ad. Remember – people re-tweet what they like, so your sphere of influence goes beyond your immediate followers. Longtime Netizen Chris Pirillo says he’s making “four-figures” off his sponsored Tweets (Pirillo has 74,000 followers). Whether you like this development or not, it shows the growing influence of Twitter on advertising. A smart local company would find the people with the most influence in their community and get in on this. The ad money is shifting, and companies willing to take a small chance will see if they are heard in the Twittersphere.
Ad.ly Launches Analytics For Sponsored Tweets
There’s been a bit of controversy around Ad.ly, which aims to link up high-profile advertisers with celebrities on Twitter and then distribute links to marketing campaigns through the user’s tweet stream with full disclosure. Launched this fall, the startup has created an interesting way to use the viral nature of Twitter and celebrity reach to develop an advertising model.
Today, Ad.ly has launched analytics for its platform, letting marketers and Twitterati measure the impact of their advertisements and Tweets. Some of the analytics that Ad.ly can now provide to advertisers include user engagement, male and female segmentation, location, and sentiment analysis. Ad.ly has partnered with PeopleBrowsr, a startup that data mines Twitter, to provide the data to users. Ad.ly’s founder Sean Rad says the reasoning behind the new feature “provide Twitter users the data they need to become more prolific content creators.” (read more)
An AdAge piece today discusses paid tweets and Ad.ly:
Paid-tweet purveyor Ad.ly, the 4-month-old Los Angeles startup, has pitched its services for the most obvious approach, inserting paid tweets among news tweets. So far the big takers are individuals such as Ms. Kardashian, but Ad.ly says major publishers are coming to the table, too.
Is this too much? Too soon? Not soon enough? What do you guys think?
Categories: Tech
