Twitter ads – save me

I have a Twitter account. I believe in social networking. Not that I have much to market, and I don't play well with others, but I like keeping in touch, especially during those cold, frozen Muskoka winters, like Snowmageddon in Dec., 2009 (we had 60 cm of snow, other parts had 100+ cm). The Internet, specifically Twitter, kept me in touch with our recent federal, and more recent provincial election.

When turkeys fly from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Twitter is desperate to make money. I can understand it. The only reason Facebook exists now is to make money. Same with YouTube. I've since gone over to Vimeo, where I can control more of the content.
There are two ways to make a profit through Twitter.
Firstly, self-promoted, paid-for ads like this:

See the orange arrow?
"Promoted by" Official AARP Tweets.

I do NOT follow AARP. Firstly, it is the American Association of Retired Persons. But I can't block the ads. They are a pretty right-wing group, that engages in self-promotion: white, upper-middle class Tea Party afficionados. They have a Canadian group affiliate, which publishes US data, and the data simply doesn't apply in my three areas of interest: healthcare (a totally different US system from Canada), education (ditto) and politics (circle of influence).

The Canadian CARP, pretty much seems to flog itself, and it is owned by the Zoomer media group. A for-profit conglomerate owned by Moses Znaimer. This doesn't bother me, except that they engage in self-promotion and much government lobbying, while claiming that CARP is non-profit.

Back to Twitter...
The 2nd way individuals make money off of Twitter, is by being paid to pretend to be a real person and selling things. There are ubiquitous, no-name, tweets by people who do not self-identify. Companies have become smart and hire people to send out tweets on their company's behalf. Pretending to have found a terrific 'new' product or services.


This is pretty sad. Here is a great graphic, a timeline of the advertising Twitter began:

The History of Advertising on Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

mashable.com/2011/05/26/twitter-advertising-infographic/

by Todd Wasserman -  26 May 2011 – Twitter has to make money somehow, and it won't be by charging for access. Here's an infographic explaining Twitter's foray into advertising.

Healthcare
The worst is in my area of advocacy: senior healthcare. Many self-promote by posting tweets about dire data, especially US-based healthcare insurance companies, or for-profit retirement homes, home care services, who are simply not unbiased in promoting their services to those with money. I tend not to follow those whose identities I cannot determine.

For more reading on big name stores:

Zellers is Killing Itself to Live on Social Media

The First Day of the Tim Hortons Twitter Account

Advertising Laws
The law says, in both the US and Canada, that if you are posting an ad, you must say so.
One of the CBC shows I follow is "The Age of Persuasion": and they then wrote a book, "The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture" Plus they have a good reading list on advertising.
An interesting show if you want to know more about how advertisers suck you in. When I taught media  literacy to my gr. 8s, this would have been an effective tool.

From an advertising lawyer:
The misleading advertising laws apply to "any" vehicle used to promote a product, no matter how minor in nature the promotional vehicle is.
The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards is clear. Even disguised advertising techniques are specifically addressed. Canadian consumers can and should submit complaints.

Movember

Slactivisim?

Advertising campaigns are taking into account the impact of Twitter. In fact, many of the fundraisers are doing so, too. Take the Movember campaign. On December 1st, there were a huge number of special galas for those who raised a significant chunk of change. This bothers me, as there is no information I can find on how much of there money actually goes to prostate research or services.
The Movember hashtag (#Movember) garnered a lot of attention, and managed to get a lot of men to encourage friends and family to contribute to the Movember fundraising. I don't know where the money goes. The Movember webiste is a bit vague. I believe this is slacktavism at best, and a waste of money at its worst, but there is no accountability for the money.

I tweeted, after listening to someone speaking of a party they attended with their boyfriend:
#Movember = December 1st: a series of GALA PARTÉS - is this where the money raised for cancer goes?
Yup. They sponsored big parties for those who raised big funds. Where is the accountability for such?