As the number of tools in the PR toolbox continue to expand, it’s our job to determine which ones align with our clients’ goals, which ones we need to monitor and be prepared to integrate when the time is right, and which ones we need to keep in our back pocket … just in case.
And, it’s in that third category where I place social sponsorship (which, BTW, is expected to reach $56+ million in 2010). The leader in this category is IZEA, the company that brings you SponsoredTweets.com. What is a sponsored tweet? According to Mashable:
The Sponsored Tweets platform works by giving advertisers the ability to create campaigns and select, invite, and approve Twitterers of their choosing to participate in their sponsored campaigns. On the flip side, Twitterers can set their pay rate and find opportunities to tweet on behalf of advertisers and get paid per tweet and/or click.
Originally, sponsored tweets followed a “pay-per-tweet” model (also known as cost-per-tweet or CPT). But, last week, SponsoredTweets.com announced a cost-per-click (CPC) model, where advertisers pay for performance, not just followers. Through a metric IZEA calls the “FAR score”, which stands for follower activation rate, advertisers can determine how engaged a particular tweeter’s followers are. Advertisers pay — and tweeters make money — when more followers click on the link included in the sponsored tweet. In other words, instead of paying to broadcast, the emphasis is on engagement (and isn’t that the role of PR, after all?).
That’s why I think sponsored conversations — more specifically the CPT model — is a tool the PR industry should at least consider. How can we use this for our clients? I asked Ted Murphy, founder/CEO of IZEA, who explained it like this (note: Ted calls tweeters “publishers”):
For example, a brand might want to engage targeted celebrities with a large number of followers with the intention of building brand awareness or to drive entries into a contest. They might also want to engage other relevant publishers with a high FAR score on a CPC basis to drive sales through a twitter-only special. That’s a great use of the platform and a good example of the flexibility it can deliver. You would have to set up two different opportunities, but that only takes a couple of minutes.
As an advertiser, you’re paying for the engagement (click). But, from an integrated communication perspective, this opens a number of opportunities. Maximize the investment by donning your PR/marketing hat to create a custom landing page for each CPC campaign. What happens if you this page includes specific calls to action and opportunities to engage traffic from Twitter on a deeper level?
This also leads to an interesting discussion on analytics. By including sponsored conversations as one tactic in an PR strategy, you have the ability to understand how this aspect of the campaign performed, as Ted explained, “down to the individual tweeter.” Combine the SponsoredTweets.com analytics with the landing page analytics — and all of a sudden you have access to powerful, quantifiable information.
What do you think? How do you see sponsored conversations as part of the PR arsenal?
Interesting take. I think there has been a lot of push-back for sponsored tweets. I'm still not quite sure what to think of it. Just like placements in publications have more credibility than advertising, I think the same holds true for sponsored tweets. I wonder - do people who sponsor tweets lose some of their credibility or followers? I could see how this would be great for the sponsoring company, but the individuals who tweet the ads may suffer.
I think there might be more opportunities with Twitter's ad platform in the search results, but that's just me.
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