TweetGlide, Monetising Twitter, Twitter Marketing and the Pyramid Model
I was very interested to receive information about this new Twitter app called Tweetglide today.
Interested because it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out a way of harnessing twitter for marketing in a non obtrusive and non-spammy way.
I watched the video explaining how it works. Very smooth. But then could not get the idea out of my head that the model is very MLM (Multi-Level Marketing or “Pyramid selling”). As soon as I hear the word “downline” and “you can earn $$$$” and “if the five people you recommend sign up five people and then they all sign up five people, think of the $$$ you would make”, it gets me all twittery (excuse the pun :-). If you ever signed up for MLM stuff in your fledgling business career like me, you’ll know what I mean.
I did go for the download, because I’m just too damned curious, but my Mac didn’t like it and went to great pains to explain to me how this app wanted full access to my machine and that it represented a threat. So I chickened out.
I’d be interested in other people’s thoughts on this. I have linked to it above, but that’s a straight link not an affiliate link, so feel free to use it secure in the knowledge that I have no interest in profiting from you going there – I just want to know what you think to it?
I, like many others, know that the marketing potential of twitter is utterly monstrous, but is a pyramid model really the best way to do it? Except for the person at the top of the pyramid?
If I’m completely wrong, please let me know.
November 1, 2009
I get that people are really interested in Twitter, but I really have to say I find the whole thing of twittering daily a waste of time for me personally as I’m rather busy building my home based business.
You mention the word pyramid and really, the entire business community is a pyramid when you look at the internal structure of organizations. So not sure why you are isolating MLM, since the entire business community is pretty much a pyramid?
People at the top of corporation or owners of companies will always get the bigger check. Its just the way it works.
As far as Twitter and the model, what type would you like to specifically see?
Regards,
November 2, 2009
Yep, that’s true, but I’m referring to pyramid schemes where there is no end to the chain – it’s just people signing up other people endlessly, with no value back to those that sign up. Ultimitely, the ONLY person to benefit is the one at the top – at least in a pyramidical business structure, people are compensated for their time (wages).
I will be very interested to see if this TwitterGlide product actually creates advertising that works, although I think it will only really appeal to the BizOpp crowd – a crowd that is so hungry for getting rich quick that they’ll swallow any old shit, and pay for it. I know – I was one of them (and in some ways still am addicted to great sales pitches). But, I’m looking at it as a real world business owner, and I wonder whether Twitter is the platform for “exposure” advertising.
The issue is that Twitter, like Facebook, have changed the way the world is currently interacting with the internet. A few years ago it was true to say that most people went online to look for information. It is also now true to say that most people go online to communicate. Check the latest report from the Oxford Internet Institute if you doubt this.
To best guess how the future of marketing via these communication media, take a look at the recent past – how has advertising on mobile phones fared?
The TweetGlide thing also reminds me of a bunch of services I signed up to over 10 years ago where you got paid to search the web by agreeing to be exposed to advertising as you surfed. I soon got fed up with it, as did everyone else. If an advertising device fundamentally interferes with the users’ interface with the medium of that device, I think this makes it fundamentally flawed. That’s why PPC works so well, especially on Google: it complements the search experience without jarring.
That’s what the big challenge for marketers is with Twitter: how to complement the twitter experience with relevant content, and to get to all those real time search results with our targeted keywords in them!
November 10, 2009
how did you find out about this Mark?
November 12, 2009
I just got emailed about it. Why?