Over the last two years several new tech companies like IZEA which runs Sponsoredtweets and Adly which is also a sponsored tweet company mostly brokering the tweeting services of celebrities with large amounts of followers have popped up. These companies are starting to attract large amounts of advertising dollars from major brand advertisers like Carl Jr’s and Sears that see dollar signs with the possibility of attaching themselves to these Celebrities with major fan bases on these social sites.

I know for a fact the main questions that most Advertisers ask themselves before they open up the check book is what exactly is the value of a sponsored blog post or a sponsored Tweet and how exactly can it be measured from an ROI stand point? How do I justify to spending X amount dollars, is it a CPC or CPM? With the evolution of Google most advertisers have started to live and die by the “numbers” when buying media. Everything has to add up on a eCPM, CPC, CPA and they use all these fancy words and terminologies. I think its a lot more cut an dry that we all think.

Just as an example if we do want to look at the numbers, according to CelebrityTweet
Kim Kardashian charges $10,000 per sponsored Tweet. This is the cost for her just to mention a product in 140 characters or less. I know on the outside it sounds ridiculous but looking at from an objective advertiser point of view, its no different than paying for advertising on another site at a $1 CPM since Kim Kardashian has over 1.2 million Twitter followers.

As I said in the earlier posts about the evolution of online marketing, I am a firm believer that Advertisers have to look at themselves in a new light to survive. They have to not only become content creators but they also have to align themselves in social hemisphere with the right people in the Community that will help extend the reach of their brand. Just like in any other Community the quickest way to make friends and get social proof is to align yourself with someone or a group of people who already have massive amounts of Social proof.

I know the next question your asking after reading this is ” is it cool to pay for friends” “or pay to align yourself with a blogger”. Don’t we need some sort of transparency? The answer to that question is both Yes and No. It all really depends on the type of action or blog post that they are paying for. A couple examples below.

If the Advertiser is paying a person to review a product and then proceeds to send the blogger that specific product to review. I don’t think this is an efficient form of advertising as there is a rationale for the blog post to be slanted a certain way since the blogger is getting paid and feels compelled to say something nice about the Advertisers product since they were not only mailed the product at no charge but also were being paid for the review. The advertiser obviously pays the Blogger to post the review with an obvious goal of increasing sales and generating new loyal customers. There is a definite conflict of interest here.

Also how many people start blogs to just review products? Not many, so from an editorial point of view it knocks out the fluidity of the blog.

On the other hand if a blogger is being paid to review a TV show, or Movie, or a some sort of content in most cases the person or production company paying for the review’s main goal is to get exposure with the understanding that they will garner both good and bad reviews to their flick..

They in most cases aren’t trying to sell any tangible product but instead they want to know what that specific blogger’s reaction is after watching their movie trailor. The production company understands that the more Social Conversation they drum up in the Blogosphere both good and bad will only encourage more people to go out and check out the movie for themselves.

The way Social Networking is setup is that everybody has their own voice and they read Blogs and News Article with an innocent sense of curiosity. I look at sponsored posting and sponsored tweeting in the same light it has to have a sense of transparency. The blogger can’t blatantly show that they are just looking to help the company that they are reviewing sell product with the blog post, and from an editorial stand point whatever they are reviewing has to flow with the rhythm of their blog or else they will lose readership. As a blogger, that is my main rationale if I were to accept payment for the review of non sales based products.