MaestroJ - digital strategy & new media

On Twitter, my friend tells me how much he loves his Canon digital camera; on Facebook, another friend creates a group entitled “I love the Hungry Jack’s Whopper”; another creates a blog post entirely about their new Dell netbook.

Daily, we take for granted this chatter amongst our social networks. We expect that they are the genuine and honest opinion of the author. We trust that the author believes their post/tweet/comment and value this input. We may even let it influence us during our own interactions with the products and brands mentioned.

How would we then feel if we found out that the content was actually sponsored by the brand being written about? Izea is a “leading company in sponsored conversations”. This week, they launced a pay per tweet service for Twitter, Sponsored Tweets. As a Tweeter, you have a lot of control over your sponsored tweet; messaging, ad unit, and value of the message. As an advertiser, you get to select which Twitter users you want to participate in your campaign. A mandatory discloure is required (a hashtag or specific text).

The debate over sponsored content is not new and is still ongoing. The “fors” argue that content such as blog posts are proprietary and bloggers own the right to do with their blogs as they please. Also many content creators have spent considerable time and effort to raise credibility and awareness of their work (blogs), if they earn money as a result of this, what’s the harm? The “againsts” argue that sponsorship devalues the honestly and authenticity of the content. Regardless of full disclosure and “independent opinion”, readers can never be sure how a sponsorship may have influenced the resulting published content.

Social media often come attached with phrases like “open and honest”, “two-way dialogue”, “transparent and authentic conversations”. Can you then apply the same methods in marketing, PR and sponsorship within these channels? Is there such a thing as “Social Media marketing”? Some people think not really.

To date, how many very successful “social media campaigns” would you say you can remember? Campaigns in the sense that a business paid money to produce marketing communications with an intended purchase decision resulting from your interaction with it? I only have a couple in mind.

I can, of course, see both sides of the argument.

As a representative of a business, I see enormous value in reaching a highly engaged, robust community and harnessing their energy to create fans and loyal members of a brand, advocates who believe in your product and service offerings.

As a blogger, I understand the allure of generating income from your hard work and having your opinion validated and monetised.

As a reader, I hesitate at the need for more advertising content, in platforms where my friends and I are in control of the conversation, participating in a dialogue that’s entirely honest and authentic.

Vote below on whether you think businesses should actively sponsor social media content: