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blog post Today on Lanarama: Techie Tuesday! Twadvertising & the Death of Twitter?

posted by Lana Gay on Jan 26, 2010

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Interview with John Chow: play

You’ve been following a blogger on twitter for months, and then all of a sudden they seem over the moon about a new cheese doodle contest. At first you think, “Hey, who doesn’t like a good ol’ cheddar snack?!” and then you wonder…. “Are they getting paid to do this?”

Ladies and gents, welcome to 'Twadvertising', a new movement where advertisers are paying top twitter personalities to namedrop their products (as detailed in this New York Times article).

Would you use your social networking profile to advertise online? Do you predict this will be the death of twitter?

Vancouver’s John Chow, a celebrity tweeter and twadvertiser, will be on the show to give us the scoop.

Post your comments on the blog, tweet us @CBCRadio3, or email feedback@cbcradio3.com

posted by Lana Gay on Jan 26, 2010

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#1 posted by
krib
on Jan 26, 2010

Twadvertising ?!? Sounds vulgar.

Is someone who does this "shooting their twad"?: )

#2 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

I mean, for example, last night I discovered a band I really enjoyed. I immediately went on Tiwtter and posted a link to their site and within 15 mins, somebody replied thanking me for turning them on to this new band.

I, inadvertantly, advertised a "product."

Also, I recieved this msg a few weeks ago:

@mtnsandthetrees Sat, brand new follower linked ur EP in post; checked it out, liked what I heard & bought it on iTunes...beauty of twitter!

Therefore, I propose Tiwtter is already an advertising tool - the most "viral" thus far (combined with Youtube).

#3 posted by
krib
on Jan 26, 2010

Information overload will be the death of Twitter.

I follow a measly 100 or so people and I've pretty much given up trying to keep up.

#4 posted by
Christine McAvoy
on Jan 26, 2010

If it was something that I use, like say....my camera, maybe.

I don't think I could over-tweet on anything like that...but then again, I'd love to be sponsored by Canon or something like that.

I'm poor man. Very poor.

#5 posted by
krib
on Jan 26, 2010

but you didn't get paid, right? That means it's genuine and not contrived

#6 posted by
melshim
on Jan 26, 2010

Apparently if you send 100 tweets/hour or 1000 tweets/day, you get thrown into Twitter Jail. I'm curious to see if this has happened to anyone!

#7 posted by
megamulliny
on Jan 26, 2010

I don't use Twitter and don't really understand the appeal so I am probably biased, but I don't like the paid advertising idea at all. Why must everything be so contrived?

Honesty always seems the best policy...and the concept doesn't seem so honest!

#8 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

What if the above-mentioned new band appreciated the shout-out and sent me a CD? Would that count as getting paid? Also, what if I go on about, I don't know, a particular guitar brand, let's say - after awhile, said guitar brand decides they like what I'm saying/playing/whatever and decide to offer a minor sponsorship? From that point on, is anything I say about them considered paid advertising, even though I would have done it for free? Is it still genuine?

I think Techie Tuesday always brings out the fiery side of me, haha! Also, you can't go through the entire TT show without mentioned Apple and their "big announcement" tomorrow, right Lana?

#9 posted by
Christine McAvoy
on Jan 26, 2010

Thats what I feel. Information sharing. Product sharing. You RT because you already enjoy what you're writing about, and feel others would too.

I just blatent advertising is something different, and not as cool.

I have almost 500 followers now, and have no idea why most are following (im sure there is spam). But MY example is after I put up my photos of the Peak Performance Finale, I @'d one of the radio dj's and low and behold they gave me a shoutout on air TO my link the next morning.

I never got paid for any of this, but I'm still hoping one day all my hard work/info sharing comes around.

#10 posted by
aardvarkk
on Jan 26, 2010

... you mean like Martin guitars? I love Martin guitars. They're great. Martin. Guitars.

#11 posted by
tagish156
on Jan 26, 2010

It sounds kinda like that imbedded advertising that verizon or snapple did on 30 Rock. Its not something I would really condone. At least on 30 Rock it was funny, twitter will probably get a solid underclass of users who simply log on just to tweet a product and it will all devolve into spam.

On another note Lana, how many of your blog topics have been twitter related now? I think you've done quite a few...

#12 posted by
keydive
on Jan 26, 2010

I don't like the idea of people being paid to advertise no problem with people saying hey I like this check it out. If twitter turns into a big spamming site I think it might kill it.

#13 posted by
photodreamz
on Jan 26, 2010

So far twitter hasnt made its users disclose what they are getting paid for. Like we are supposed to in the blogsphere.

That being said, everyone uses it for marketing. Personally If I dont want to be marketed by something I dont follow the person.

There is a fine line, but I think it's like any social media tool, they are useful for marketing, and it probably wont go away.

#14 posted by
krib
on Jan 26, 2010

say this happens. if, after this, you are now going to change what you say and think twice about stating difficulties you may have with a new model from said guitar company, then I would say it is paid advertising

and this is still different from a company going to an Ashton kutcher and paying him to tweet to his large following about a product.

#15 posted by
krib
on Jan 26, 2010

yeah, there needs to be an #Ad hash-mark to indicate it's a paid advertisement.

#16 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

Yes, Gibson guitars, exactly!

#17 posted by
Lana Gay
on Jan 26, 2010

Just searched through, and it looks like, since November, this is the 2nd, but inevitably, any post referencing social networking will get a twitter mention or two.

#18 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

What I said would almost have to change - I can't imagine an advertiser paying you to say *anything* you wan about a product. They'd prob want you to keep the bad stuff offline, at least, but report it directly to them... but we're getting off-topic, maybe a little...

One of the major differences that, I think, a lot of us "regular" users have is that we do not have 1 000 000+, 100 000+, or even 10 000+ followers.

In the end, the only thing I can say for sure is that I do *not* feel it is the death of Twitter because people have learned to tune-out advertising, on a certain level. I don't know how many times on Facebook somebody sends me "Test your music knowledge" quizzes or something stupid like that. If it turns our that's all they're doing, I just delete them. Same for Twitter. It's like the golden rule of the internet - spam happens. If I woke-up tomorrow and @CBCRadio3 was telling me, constantly, I needed to drink Mountain Dew and eat Subway, I'd just have to take them off my list, #Ad tag or not.

(@CBCRadio3 - it's not that I still didn't love you, or that I didn't dirnk Mountain Dew or eat Subway, it's a principal thing. We're still cool, right?)

On a completely seperate topic, I would just liek to say I am totally a Japandroids convert and even though I'm late to the seemingly kick-ass party, I am REALLY enjoying these guys!

#19 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

As much as I love this discussion, I'm loving te playlist even more tonite!

#20 posted by
MusicSoop
on Jan 26, 2010

If you're talking a Gibson or Martin from the 1960's then that's cool, but for new guitars you gotta go Taylor. Or if you're loaded, Collings. Wait, we're talking acoustics right?

#21 posted by
TheatreUBC
on Jan 26, 2010

I love being able to get immediate feedback from our audiences/customers. How great not to have to wait for the yea or nay of a very few Vancouver theatre critics to come out in print.

It's a fabulous tool for artists to communicate with. i am now having conversations about theatre with professionals all over the world. some stage managers tweet from back stage - so cool!

@TheatreUBC

#22 posted by
trigger
on Jan 26, 2010

Did they just use interrupting-Kanye in this song? Oh man. That is... I don't even know what to say about that.

#23 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

'59 ES-125 ok?

#24 posted by
TheatreUBC
on Jan 26, 2010

Thanks for the show - interesting! PS: hash tags # don't always mean it's a paid Tweet. Often people who are part of a special interest group like #theatre - or who are in a conversation with many people like #hockeynightincanada use it.

#25 posted by
kirkofdoom
on Jan 26, 2010

does it count if i am always pimping my own music blog on my twitter? that's probably more along the lines of cross promoting...

but kinda like what TM&TT was saying, I have often been like "i like band x" or "band x is playing at the some venue tonight!" But even then, I don't consider that "advertising"

#26 posted by
Lana Gay
on Jan 26, 2010

I was referencing #ad or #sponsor, which seem to be popping up quite a lot!

Thanks for your tweets and comments!!!!

#27 posted by
MusicSoop
on Jan 26, 2010

Yeah that's good! I ever tell you about the time UPS accidentally dropped off a 1950s L5 at my house?

#28 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

Ahhhh, clearly not, because I would definately remember that. Do spill the beans!

What can brown do for you? Apparently deliver antique guitars for no reason!

#29 posted by
tagish156
on Jan 26, 2010

I wanna say it like Twoddvertising, it does sound vulgar

#30 posted by
MusicSoop
on Jan 26, 2010

Somehow they tore off the new label and the old one was for our place so they delivered it to us. My roommate, who also plays guitar, and I made a good-samaritan-musician decision to return it to the guy who it belonged too. It was hard to do though. We had to "test it out" for a couple days before we contacted him, lol. I believe at the time it's estimated value was $7,000. Probably more like $20,000 by now.

In answer to the question of the day, If someone wanted to give ME a cool guitar I'd sure as heck blab about it online. Unless it was a Daisy Rock, for obvious reasons.

#31 posted by
themountainsandthetrees
on Jan 26, 2010

Haha, it's funny hearing myself on radio still. My grandmother sometimes asks "Why can't we get Radio 3 on our radio?"

@MusicSoop - Haha, "test it" for a few days eh? Lucky, lucky you!

@Lana - My apologies for all the Tiwtter-talk. It was only earlier today I was talking to a local organization about how Tiwtter would be beneficial for them and it got me thinking about how long Twitter has before it's replaced by, I don't know, whatever the next new social-media fad is.

#32 posted by
Lana Gay
on Jan 26, 2010

Never apologize! The blog is meant for comments, all good. Always great to hear from you!

#33 posted by
CDNz1
on Jan 26, 2010

I Tweet this photo a lot. I do it to promote the site and that for which it stands. It's not about me, it's about the music and the clubs and the artists.