Twittad is a new service that, as described on their website "gives Twitter users and advertisers the opportunity to meet for product placement & website promotion on a Twitter user profile."
Sounds warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?
Then you go to the "How Twittad Works" page and the first thing you read is "Post Twitter account for advertisers to purchase." Huh? Purchase your profile as in own it?
Apparently the marketing geniuses at TwittAd aren't familiar with the concept of personal branding; if they were surely they would realize that, for some, the idea of selling their Twitter profile is probably tantamount to selling one of their kidneys. These days, a person's Twitter profile can be--and probably is--an integral part of their personal and, therefore, professional brand. Would anyone consider "selling" their LinkedIn profile? After all, if you sell something to someone, isn't it then theirs to do whatever they wish with? Are people going to be ok logging on to Twitter to find that their personal brand is now porn or something?
Ok, then--say you are willing to sell your profile to the highest bidder--what kind of money are we talking? Take a look at the current listings of profiles up for sale. The highest prices is $20; most are $5 or $10. Is that price per "hour you serve the ad"--whatever that means--or is it what advertisers pay to take ownership of your profile, then you rake in revenue similar to what you'd earn with AdSense; e.g. $0?
I'm just baffled by the whole TwittAd website--I have no idea what "hours serving the ad" means and, as far as I can tell, they give no explanation. I suppose one way to find out would be to put my profile up for bid and see what kind of money it actually brings in--that seems to be about the only way to find out based on the lack of detail provided by their website.
No comments:
Post a Comment