‘F-U Pay Me’: the Internet is NOT Free
Sponsored content in general, and even more specifically sponsored tweeting, have spurred both misaligned and poignant conversation. The naysayers will always say nay and the advocates will have brown noses until they are hardly recognizable, but the majority of those who are considered thought leaders are skating in the middle (Cough… Lisa Barone). It’s as if people are waiting for sponsored tweeting to fail or succeed before they chime in and say ‘I told you so’.
“I thought sponsored tweets was the answer and I also disclosed that I have been doing sponsored tweets for the last year.” - Shoemoney
As a Media Director I am an equally unadulterated backer of sponsored content. I’ve used it, very effectively, to foster high performing and highly targeted online branding campaigns for many clients both big and small. Then just last Monday, alongside another agency, we were thankful enough to receive a preview of the sponsored tweeting platform from SponsoredTweets.com.
Just like in any piece of writing, social media can be analyzed, criticized and canonized in many different ways. In the typical college undergrad English course, students are taught to analyze a piece of writing by going through the process choosing a selection and expanding outward within that context in order to gain an understanding of the piece in its entirety. Likewise, in social media it is critical to place an emphasis on one area of the field in order to gain a better understanding of the benefits of social media as a whole. But could it be possible to place so much emphasis on building a business marketing strategy that the value of the conversation is diminished? While SM Playbook makes a strong and well thought out plan of attack for a social media campaign, it foregoes the most important aspect of social media; conversation.
