To have some marketing guy say "Hey, there's profit potential here" just raises my hackles. I've reconciled myself to the inevitability of advertisements on Twitter. It's just a matter of time until the founders decide it's time to monetize and they start adding advertisements to the Twitter.com home page, and probably through the messaging system as well. I don't like it, but for Twitter to survive, it has to become profitable. No way around it. But when other agents decide that Twitter is a wonderful tool for viral marketing, I get a little worried. Sure, I don't have to follow people that are marketing on Twitter, but it'll still be hard to avoid. The problem with viral marketing is that it is viral, and it generates buzz on a massive scale. People I follow will be talking about it, and that marketing will trickle down to me whether I like it or not. I don't want that, and as much as it pains me to say it, I'll abandon Twitter in a heartbeat if it becomes yet another tool for the massive marketing machine.
In the video on his blog post, he emphatically states that "Twitter Me This" is not about making money. In fact, he's losing money on it. He's says it's for fun. But he's a marketing person. And he admits in the blog post that his goal is to determine how many people he can get to follow the bot. If he succeeds in getting large numbers of followers, it's not a stretch to imagine him designing new bots, bots that he can monetize.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against people making a buck. People sell products on Twitter. They point people to their blog posts, where they make advertising revenue. But that's like a lot like real life. Your friend is selling a car, and she tells you about it. Your Sister publishes a blog post, and she emails you about it. That's okay. But I don't need a huge billboard slammed into my living room every time I go to Twitter. To me it feels wrong. The people I follow and who follow me seem to be the type of people I'd chat with over coffee.
I know I'm going to take some heat for taking this position. "There are viral marketing campaigns in the real world" they'll say. And they're right. We are constantly surrounded by marketing. In fact, we are barraged with advertisements almost constantly. TV , Radio, and other media have constantly barraged us with images and ideas that are designed to sell us something. Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" comes to mind when I think of viral marketing. I love Twitter, and I'd hate to see it become another marketing tool. I can shut the radio off. I can press the mute button on the TV. In fact, I've abandoned both TV and Radio in favor of internet broadcasting solutions. I'd hate to have to abandon Twitter as well, but I will if it comes down to it. I guess I'm just a Twitter purist or a Twitter snob depending on how you look at it.
Article comments
1 - Wayne Sutton
Good post on twitter and the twittermethis project.
Someone was telling me about it yesterday. You're on point by saying that twitter is about the conversations and community. I'll be glad when twitter does start to monetize itself but in the mean time I think people should use twitter in anyway possible they can think of.
I'm @waynesutton on twitter and I approve of this marketing on twitter.
2 - Jim Kukral
It's not a bot. Would love to do the interview. Contact me anytime and we'll do it.
3 - dOgBOi
And I owe Jim Kukral an apology. I made the assumption that this was a bot, and it's not. I am going to contact him for the interview. Just want to wait a bit to get some community input, so the questions can be a little more focused on what people might or might not want to know.
4 - Lea Charlton
Yes, I came across the project a few months ago. It is interesting, though sometimes I think it is all Twitter hoopla, and I guess necessary for those who still do not understand Twitter; meanwhile they go to Facebook and post their action without a second thought. The concept is not difficult and the strategy is dependent upon whether you would like to appease the business or social emotions of your follower or prospective followers. Just not sure the project is on point with saying follow all of these people and they will follow you ... just as with any other link campaign, you then need an outside resource to track and quite frankly, I do not like the clutter or sifting through the "I just took a nap" and / or "I am doing ..." comments when I am using a Twitter for business. We will see what the final results will be.
5 - Chris Vendilli
I agree with your points. Twitter is real.
It shouldn't be used necessarily as a direct marketing tool, but more or less, as a "connecting" tool.
There's no ethical dilemmas or shame in finding other like-minded people on Twitter.
I think where you see this happening most is with marketers marketing to other marketers.
Great post. I thoroughly enjoyed it and while you may disagree with the content I'm sharing at my site at first glance, I think if you dig under the hood a little bit you'll see we're basically on the same page.
-Chris
6 - Rett
Twitter is a great tool...if used correctly.
7 - AaronZ
Responsible marketing on Twitter is not only possible but inevitable. Jack Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder was recently on the show Press:Here (a weekly technology show on the Bay Area's NBC affiliate). He didn't deny it, but it's a great interview for a couple of reasons. First, he made it crystal clear that they aren't going to just take money for the sake of revenue (and at the expense of the user experience). Second, he made a key distinction between 'search' and 'discovery'. It's a very interesting positioning move. Twitter does 'discovery' WAY better than Google. These principles / ethics of Twitter don't preclude third parties from trying to capitalize and abuse the system, but they won't make it easy and neither will the Twitter community.
8 - John
Twitter will have to be aggressive about spam. Otherwise, it will become odious.
But keep in mind that marketing is the science and art of persuading people to use a product that the marketer believes will add value to your life. People who sell crap don't last long and they typically resort to spam-like techniques. Professional marketers sell quality products that people want without using tasteless or coercive techniques.