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Advertisers Are Stalking You on Twitter

by Terrence O'Brien on July 18, 2009 at 12:32 PM

Advertisers Are Stalking You On TwitterThis likely isn't much of a surprise, but advertisers are watching everything we do online. Of particular interest to them now is what we're all posting on Twitter. Everything we say on the micro-blogging service is subject to the scrutiny of PR reps, advertisers, marketers and the like.

Tweeting praise for a product may land your tweet on that company's Web site, like a movie review blurb on a film trailer. It may also get harvested by a company like Twitter Pulse, which places tweets about products in advertisements all over the Web.

Of course, the attempts to turn Twitter into a gold mine for advertisers doesn't stop at unsolicited blurbs. While the Twitter site itself may lack ads, many applications made for using it, like TwitterFon on the iPhone, include advertisements. Ads on TwitterFon come from a company called Twitter Sparq, whose ads include text and links to the company Web page, but also add a "Tweet this" function which will draft a post for you to tell your followers about the product.

It's not all fun and games. Advertisers are also encouraging people to Tweet negatively about competitors. As Seth Goldstein, CEO of Social Media, the company behind Twitter Sparq, told the New York Times, "It's hard to get someone to say something good about Comcast, but it's easy to get people to complain about DSL."

It's yet another reminder that anything you say online is fair game. It could get you fired, dumped, or, even worse, hawking crappy insurance on an obnoxious banner ad. [From: New York Times]

Tags: ads, advertising, top, twitter

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