Here’s the third update to our January and April posts: Uber-blogger Robert Scoble, who in 2006 argued that having advertisements on blogs destroys trust, appears to be no longer content with… adding advertisements to his blog. Now he’s experimenting with Twittering adverts for perennial sponsor Seagate. He later twittered “I am just having a little fun getting a conversation about microblog advertising going”. That may be so but it will be interesting to see how the community reacts a) to Scoble’s move and b) the long-rumoured possibility of ads in Twitter feeds.
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Mike, you obviously have no sense of humor and I think you missed the point!
Very interesting post. I like Scoble and im not too sure about him placing ads in his twitter account stream. Bit boring really.
I would have to agree.
Anthony - Actually you appear to have missed my irony. No matter. It’s still significant because - given that he has nearly 23,000 followers - Scoble’s move may be an interesting test case.
Forgot Scoble. The question is why Twitter isn’t selling these directly themselves. Push one or two sponsored twits per day to everyone. Leave them off by default for those who get twits by text message. Allow anyone to opt-out. Funds the service, and if that makes it more stable, I for one wouldn’t complain.
u gotta admit though that his normal pic does work perfectly with an endorsement message…. almost as if those hard-drives really do rock… hmmm
i might just have to go get one now….. he looks like he’s rocking out with seagate.
I disagree, Anthony. It had nothing to do with a sense of humor. Scoble tried it out, to guage the reaction he would get… covering it with a laugh. Can’t blame the man for trying. However, I think it’s tacky.
Ha. The thing about money.
I’m currently running a poll (link here) to see how many people would be willing to pay £12 a year to use Twitter. Just over half of those that have done it say they would. This is a really interesting area to look at as people start to build their own networks and charge people to advertise through them. Next steps . . . Facebook profile pictures . . . Not sure how it could be controlled either. . .
there is nothing wrong with bloggers promoting things. as long as the audience know they things being promoted are because they paid for it to be done. I hate it when there is a grey line ie Techcrunch were users often say ” is techcrunch covering that company because the company paid for it , or because techcrunch is friends with the founder/vc etc ).
Do u know what is the Twitter business model (if the have someone)? Is the traffic users, i think. I don’t linke ads in a twit such as Pownce do and i don’t believe again in buzz marketing. Scoble say that Segate paid him for a short message advertising (that not only the 23k follower read, of course). Is this the future? Maybe people prefer forum and blogs review.
It’s not so much will Twitter gets ads, but when. Look at the jp service. They have to cover costs somehow. I’m hoping they when they do, they go the way of Flickr, offering a subscription service with no ads
Hah! Awesome! I say, “good on ya Scoble!” The guy spends that much energy online, he may as well make a buck or two doing it.
And, ummm, is the pot calling the kettle black? Last time I checked, TechCrunch was a bit top-heavy with ads
@Dario, I think Twitter makes quite a bit of money, and all of it’s income, from the SMS updates … they get a cut of each message sent I believe.
@Ara Pehlivanian — I think the point is that Scoble previously came out with what was interpreted as a very anti-advertising hard line stance, and now is apparently into it.
Scoble Is Scared {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/RuzIGiO2Iq_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Scoble Is Scared ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/vweENL4pS0″}}}
aside from this “test” i say put ads in the twitter stream, just clearly mark them.
if scoble starts doing this for real though, i may not follow him anymore.
to @Jonathan - Ask the masses if they think Twitter integrates easily into their lives and they get value from it. The Early Adopters are all onboard with a product that is how old and yet to make the leap? TwitReal – an application that tracks the total number of twitter accounts, dormant (not used for a month or more), and actives (used more than once a week). Let the facts speak for themselves.
I see some very solid applications for Twitter, but it needs to get into the mainstream very soon or it will be just another quasi-closed network.
Scobble is now too important not to follow… just like techcrunch.
Since just about everything he says is an advertisement, its nice to see disclosure.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Who wouldn’t follow the lure of money.
http://www.retailalley.blogspot.com
I prefer Western Digital.
A user posting ads has opting out built right in — if followers don’t like it they can unfollow him in two hot seconds. Assuming he doesn’t want to destroy his network, which is what Twitter is all about, afterall, he won’t do too much of it either. Moreover, spammers won’t be able to move in because they won’t be able to build a following at all (unless there are some real masochists out there — or maybe the spammers could all follow each other?). Twitter/Twitter users are so fluid there’s a lot of protection built in.
As far as Twitter-pushed ads go, I’d be happy to see a few a day if it helps make the site more robust. I only follow 66 people right now, but that’s still enough tweets per hour that I am generally running through them pretty quickly anyway and could easily gloss over several well-marked sponsor posts, as I do on Silicon Alley Insider etc. For Twitter to continue to grow I think it needs to remain free, so ad-supported is a much better model than subscription imo.
ADVERTISEMENT: This comment is sponsored by Tony the Tiger. Eat some Frosted Flakes Scoble! They’re Grrrrrreat!
I wonder how much Seagate are paying him to sell out
Just ANOTHER reason to not follow Scoble.
Opt-in, opt-in, opt-in. Ads, straight up, won’t work on twitter; not in it’s current form. As a framework for service, it’s fine, but direct ad content, unfiltered, unanalyzed, and based on blanket impressions is 100% Fail.
Ah yes a little R&D for Mr. Scoble the content King…Well whatever he does I’m sure will blaze the trail for others thinking about commercialism and Twitter/Blogs…
Is Scoble now willing to cling to any shreds of relevancy these days?
Prior to this twitspam tantrum, Scoble has been overloading the wires with his tripe for some time now. I guess I’m using the “nobody eats there anymore - it’s too crowded” logic, but really, does anyone actually pay any attention to Rob?
I don’t even hear him on TWiT anymore, and if even Leo can’t tolerate his shit … well, no sense dissing on Leo but you know what I’m saying!
BTW this is one of the BIIIIG downsides to twitter imho - you get to find out way too much about your internet ‘heroes’ personalities’ … without twitter, I would never have known that scoble was simply a chubby, attention-starved monomaniac whose super-ego had been surgically removed as a child. Now I have difficulty reading even his more salient posts simply because of this artificial context that my knowledge of his faults gives.
::sigh:: maybe we can just shut down the internet for a while today … let me have my dreams back.
#5 Danny
Agree. Twitter should be rolling some AdTweets in everyone’s feed, just like Facebook has sponsored mentions in the Update feed. Wouldn’t turn me off at all. I’m sure some of the ads would be more interesting than 70 percent of the Tweets I scan.
#16 In bed Feldman
Fast Company has seen explosive growth (the magazine). More accurate to say FastCompany.TV is still getting it’s sea legs. I wouldn’t bet against it. Just needs time and the right mix of creative talent and content.
The funny part is that Scoble will gain more and more readers just because of these posts on TC about him. Plus his ads are just GENIUS.
Oh, and my 2 cents… They should call twitter ads “Twads.”
Nothing wrong with adverts…
I really enjoyed your above the board reporting. What does this have to do with your main purpose: drinking kool-aid 2.0
Ads are needed…
Do a deal with Warner Brothers. Have Tweety Bird as the official mascot for Twitter. And when Tweety appears in your stream, offering you a fat discount on some Twirrific! product … well, that’s entertainment, and that’s how I want my ads.
http://tiny.cc/Tweety
We have plenty of PayPerPost from Arrington
Now we will get PayPerTwitt from Scoble?
Am I the only one who thinks Loren Feldman’s videos, while refreshing in their “no silicon valley BS, NYC attitude”, are also kinda scary in that “just woke up from Cinco do Mayo and this guy is in bed next to me talking about Robert Scoble” kind of way.
It is this no-shirt, leaning head on arm shot … no!
Wow, Loren must have a tough commute to the office. He couldn’t even make it to the kitchen.
I don’t get why everyone is all paranoid over advertising… So what? You’ve got to make money somehow and if it’s 1) a product you use and 2) a product you like, why not get paid to say you like it!
It was effective.
I was forced to consider what brand of HD’s I have in my place right now. After a quick count, I have a bunch of old IBM, Western Digital, and a single Seagate. Upon reflection, the majority are legacy SCSI, Ultra SCSI, and the sole IDE is the Seagate. All of them are terribly low density.
I need bigger better drives. Then again, how exactly does a drive “rock”?
Synopsis: Scoble Ad technique is effective but slightly odd.
This odd was similar to the first time I noticed advertising in urinals.
Geez, so much about Scoble. I think he has sucked and continues to suck, regardless of where he is or doing.
I hope this post is tongue in cheek, especially because this site (and every other site with readers) had ads all over it.
NOT having ads on his site set Scoble apart from the rest of the blogs, so what if he said F it and decided to make some cash?
@16 - Ewwwwww. If I had the choice of naked video comments from Loren Feldman or sponsored tweets I’d take the ads any day.
Have Scoble and Philip Seymour Hoffman ever been seen in the same room at the same time? The guy looks shifty if you ask me - I wouldn’t trust him to recommend anything.
That’s why I remove him from my list, He was cool, but now he is lame
Please don’t make fun of Loren Feldman, he might readjust the camera so we can see more of him.
Scoble has blogged about the death of newspapers, how they aren’t adjusting to today’s world, and will soon become extinct. But he’s following in the footsteps of their business model.
Long ago, newspapers were about news delivery. The best newspapers got the best people who could deliver that news. Then, they started to take in advertising dollars. Society moves along to the point where my Sunday newspaper is 70% advertisements. Very little news delivered, indeed.
Talk about not repeating the mistakes of the past. This just goes to show how inexpensive it is (seagate is likely paying thousands, instead of millions) to get an A-list blogger to flip-flop on their “principles”.
I don’t blame Scoble taking ad dollars, it probably makes short-term sense for him. But standing out and espousing the virtues of not being tainted by advertising shows he was phony. Hope the dollars were sufficient, Robert; you won’t ever have enough to buy your credibility back, that’s for sure.
@everyone
tell me scooble in the main pic isnt EXACTLY the same as this
http://www.kidzworld.com/img/u.....;149_w.jpg
scoble was pretty good in boogie nights, and capote was decent, but after that, i’m not sure…