Sunday, November 1, 2009

Paid to Tweet?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1925991,00.html

This is an article I read in Time Magazine about Twitter. It explains how more and more companies are paying everyday people to "tweet" about their product on their personal account. I thought it brought up an interesting point: "Paid tweeting also raises questions about disclosure: If someone speaks highly about a product on Twitter, don't followers have a right to know if that messenger is a compensated mouthpiece?"

So this isn't entirely pertinent to our class but it is interesting.

Also- in class we were discussing how long we think Twitter may stick around. I found this statistic in my husband's Graphic Design USA magazine: "Nielsen Online reports that more than 60% of Twitter users in a given month do not return to the site the following month; some months 70% abandon the service." The article went on to explain, "The Nielsen folks speculate that we may be experiencing a fad, and one reason is lack of meaningful content." However, part of me wonders if the short postings are perfect for a society whose attention span collectively keeps shrinking. In journalism, articles are forced to become more concise- why wouldn't the same brevity be applied to our social networking habits?

1 comment:

  1. Wow, this is an interesting point. Time will tell if tweeting will hold up. It's funny, I can remember the speculation that came with blogging, but here we are!! I would definitely want to know if the product I'm about to purchase was praised by a paid tweeter. I still find technology fascinating in its constant advancements. So, I guess I won't try to figure out how to tweet until it's out of its fad interval. :)

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