
Twitter’s Biggest Problem: Tweets are Ads - profitbaron
http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/twitters-biggest-problem-tweets-are-ads/
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technomancy
> Stop what you’re doing right now (i.e. quit reading this blog post), go to
> your Twitter account, and scan the first screen. Be really dispassionate.
> How many of the Tweets there could be called ads in the sense I’m using it?

I get 5 that could be considered ads out of 30 tweets; only two of which are
actually about things for sale.

It sounds like this guy just isn't very good at picking folks to follow.

That said, it's a good thing to be aware of.

~~~
phlux
Ads are blurbs that are asking for your attention. If they are asking you to
go somewhere (link), think about something (statement) or buy something, they
are still ads.

Given that twitter is a one-to-many medium, unless your friends (real ones
that you hang out with) are directly communicating with you over twitter, its
pretty much a given that they are ads.

Assume that you follow P-Diddy. You read his tweets. You have never, nor shall
never actually hang out with this person in real life. Every time you read
anything he produces, you're consuming his ad. His comments which you receive
via twitter are veiled PR/marketing - even if he is providing tangential
commentary on events unrelated to himself such as the earthquake in Japan...
you are consuming his content.

He is a media icon. Anything he says is designed to drive attention to his
brand.

While you may not be purchasing anything he produces with your money -- you
are _spending your attention_ on anything you read.

This is the nature of _programming_ (content/media programming, not computer
programming) -- You are rewarding media content producers with your attention,
eventually that will translate to an expenditure of your money -- which is
really a proxy for attention/thought anyway...

EDIT: Given that your handle is _'Technomancy'_ I would have thought you to
understand this much -- unless you dont know the meaning of your own handle...

~~~
technomancy
> Ads are blurbs that are asking for your attention. If they are asking you to
> go somewhere (link), think about something (statement) or buy something,
> they are still ads.

Sure, that's why I said only 2 of the 5 ads were things for sale; the others
were to things like blog posts. I do realize that I'm in the minority; I only
follow about a little over a hundred users. I personally know maybe 70% of
them.

I suppose his point stands he is talking about the bigger picture and Twitter
in general; I'm just pointing out that if you take some care to curate your
followers list it doesn't have to be that way for you.

~~~
phlux
Honestly, I posted a bit impulsively as the first read of your comment sparked
my post, but upon review - you were not as rejecting to the idea as I had
originally thought... so, my apologies, though I do stand by my points for
others who may not think tweets are ads.

Cheers.

------
wmf
So why doesn't Twitter just embrace this and charge to send tweets (to any
significant number of followers)?

~~~
adamesque
…or from "verified" accounts.

If you go this route, I guess you'd probably want to let @replies and DMs
remain free (or give them a much higher cap).

~~~
phlux
Actually -- then it would make sense for twitter to become a PR extension.
They should bolt on a ton or PR services - like managed delivery, metrics,
event tie ins etc...

They should work exclusives with celebrities to promote their albums,
concerts, movies and events.

There should be special rewards for followers to engage via retweets such as
free tickets, lower pricing etc.

There are so many media engagement models that I am just amazed that they
aren't doing any of this.

When I interviewed there recently, the only takeaway I had from the experience
was organized chaos.

------
atacrawl
It's kind of funny that such a succinct explanation of Twitter's core problem
could lead to a tl;dr situation.

~~~
joejohnson
This guys makes the same point over and over.

------
brownleej
While reading this, I kept thinking that search results are ads too, at least
as the author defines them. Google still managed to create a valuable
proposition for advertisers, so why couldn't Twitter?

------
imrehg
I just got working my Twitter game weekend project: Can you guess who tweeted
this? <http://who.saidth.at>

One thing I haven't realized before I started is how difficult it is to find
"quality" tweets. I use celebrities' messages, people who I can reasonably
assume that some people would care to know what they have said. But at least
half of them just post links and retweets all the time.... Fortunately there
are some really good ones as well, so anyways.... :)

