It's pretty clear advertisers are hellbent on getting into the stream. No doubt, earned media will be important to get there, but that's a long-term play. There are shortcuts. Web publishing software company Squarespace found one with a new contest to give away 30 iPhones in 30 days. It's pretty simple: it'll pick a winner each day from all Tweets including the #squarespace hash tag. People will pretty much do anything for free stuff -- or even a shot at free stuff. Sure enough, the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter is squarespace. (Since I started writing, 600 mentions have been posted.) I've seen it pop up in my stream many times. Is this effective? I'm not sure. No matter what, it's pretty low cost -- the 30 phones will cost it under $10,000 with no media or creative costs to speak of. It's clear that Twitter will need to crack down on this kind of hashtag gaming (hello, #spymaster) for people to become trending topics. This kind of thing, to me, quickly becomes spam.
The solution would be a Twitter filter to blog any Tweets with #hashtags or specific keywords -- all hashtags, or some picked by the user. I'd pay for such a service. What I wouldn't give to block all tweets in my stream with the phrase "spymaster".
Hello, developers -- profitable business idea just waiting for you.
Posted by: Ben Kunz | June 10, 2009 at 12:04
I will admit I saw the words "tweet to win a free iPhone" and jumped on the bandwagon.
Then I read the fine print and realized that they're not buying me a new 3GS if I win: they're giving me $199 to spend at the Apple Store. Which, given that my current iPhone is about a year old, means I can buy half a 3GS.
Now $199 is nothing to sneer at, and AT&T may well change their punitive policy towards current users, but if I'm expecting an video iPhone...
THe other interesting thing about this, is it skirts the fringes of a new trend towards Twitter spam I read about the other day: Spammers take control of a popular hashtag and stick a url for their Natural Viagra or Internet Porn site into the message. (e.g. "Loving the new #squarespace #iphone contest. Even #Aplusk does! http://is.gd.34f4" Only the url takes you to the spam site.)
It doesn't take much for the unscrupulous to suss out these sorts of schemes-- which, to your point, means Twitter has to do something about the hashtag thing.
Posted by: Alan Wolk | June 10, 2009 at 13:15
I give up. I'm just going to unfollow anyone who shills products unrelated to their own mind on Twitter from now on. It's the only way to clean up the stream.
(Alan, you get one free pass since you're smart...) ;)
Posted by: Ben Kunz | June 10, 2009 at 19:13
There is a right way and wrong way to get into the "Stream" and this is clearly the wrong way. The number is direct messages i got from people asking me to participate in spymaster was insane.
The other question this brings up is for the people who participate. It is an interesting social experiment, are the so interested in winning $199 that they will become spammers.
Good stuff.
Dirk
Posted by: dirkmshaw | June 11, 2009 at 05:16
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Posted by: Donde Invertir | February 14, 2010 at 11:56