Brand Sponsored Twitter Trends Could Be a Different kind of Fail whale
My thoughts exactly - you wouldn't know exactly who was whispering sweet nothings in your ear: The Ventriloquist or the doll?
I admit - I have been hooked on Twitter for about a year now. I joined in July, 2009 out of curiosity thanks to @Osmosisfutzing and found Twitter an excellent community to be part of for 3 cool reasons:
1) It's a paradise of organised information.
Not in the Google way but in the way that matters most to us as people -information other people find useful
enough to share. That is the heart of it. Stuff that is good enough to share (of course, you get the occasional spammer and self serving junkster - those you quickly learn to unfollow or remove from your followers list).
2) It's about the People
I have become connected to people who run mega-million dollar enterprises on Twitter simply because they
liked my tweet or I liked theirs. It may have taken a different length of time to access this people directly via
LinkedIn or similar platform. Twitter makes that happen more easily. True, we follow brands on Twitter- those that respect the rules of the game and are innovative not trying to force a trend. Geez.
3) Brands do not - absolutely do not - intrude in my world.
Let's face it, Twitter is our own never ending Tea-party where we gather and say what we want about
what matters to us. We do it confident we are sharing with like minds..which sometimes are also brands
So, why is Twitter getting it wrong and trying to force brands into the 1 area Twitterers consider their own
island? The TREND spot!
It's the money stupid! $$$
What effect can it have?
1) An initial high
Sponsored trends = Sponsored tweets and so I would expect there to be agencies or freelance people
waiting in the wings to re-tweet or mention these sponsored 'Trends' and aim for some traction.
2) People get turned off
Fake trends will be discovered for what they are and this becomes Counter productive to the sponsor
brand. No brand should honestly expect to sponsor a trend and think it, the brand is honestly being
absorbed into the community of people.
3) Off They go
Some Twitter users may just decide the competition is getting too hot now you have to pay to get trended.
Small brands without the financial muscle may just easily get out 'trended'.
That is the part I find bemusing - if you have great content, great approach - people will tweet it to high heavens for you! This is a simple cause and effect in social media marketing. Of course you can nudge, influence but not try to hoodwink.
No one is paying me to tweet #worldcup but the thing is definitely trending as was #Justin Bierber some weeks ago. Or #Lindsay Lohan. C'mon..don't we just love her?
No offense meant to any scientists out there but can any folk on Twitter honestly looking forward to a sponsored trend about atomic elements from a government agency seeking some funding and wanting to show 'public support'? Please!
It's early days yet and I really hope Twitter rests this idea of sponsored Trends.
Read more about the Sponsored Trend plan by Twitter at Fast Company http://bit.ly/crt3gr.
You can catch up with me here http://twitter.com/travelwithdayo as I dig deeper into this sponsored trend saga. Happy #world cup and good luck to Africa! http://www.fifa.com/
Dayo Adefila
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