Posted by: Erin Wilson, Marketing Coordinator
Social media marketing will be an important player in many companies’ business strategies this year. The key is determining the most efficient and cost-effective way to implement social media tactics into your business plan. Sponsored tweets are quickly becoming one effective way for organizations to use Twitter for their business needs.
Ad.ly and Sponsored Tweets are just a couple of the companies that have created a platform for businesses to connect with Twitter users. These services pay people to tweet about specific products and services. Depending on their influence within Twitter, Twitter users tweeting for sponsors can get paid anywhere from 50 cents to $10,000 per tweet. Power tweeters like socialite Kim Kardashian fall into the higher end of that range. Tweeters are required to disclose that they are endorsing a product/service through symbols like #ad, (ad), etc.
Although it seems like this might be an expensive way to create content on Twitter, it has its benefits. Sponsored tweets develop variation in messaging by allowing other users to promote your brand through their point of view. You can also get a message out quickly; by getting just one famous person to tweet about your company, you can essentially reach thousands. If that route is too expensive, you can get more targeted by selecting lower profile tweeters that are more connected with their followers and have a stronger sphere of influence. Smaller without large marketing budgets have found that sponsored tweets are very cost-effective.
The only drawback to utilizing sponsored tweets is the risk of coming across fake and losing your following. It is best to start off your Twitter campaign through organic word-of-mouth and then slowly move into using sponsored tweets.
As long as they are approached with caution, sponsored tweets could provide the right angle for distinguishing your company profile on Twitter.
