Is it a Good Idea to Have Ads in Tweets? Advertising has driven the majority of Internet innovation My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly that is an “in-stream advertising” company currently focused on monetizing Twitter. This has prompted many people to question whether advertising “in stream” and on Twitter is a good thing or a bad thing. I understand that when people read about ads they initially have an aversion. If that’s you – please read on.
We’re clearly in the early stages on Twitter monetization but let me offer some views on why we find Ad.ly so compelling (other than the fact that the CEO Sean Rad is a great young technology leader and his advisers – Brian Norgard, Dan Gould and Evan Rifkin- are some of the guys I respect most in the LA tech market.) So what do we mean by in-stream advertising? OK, many of you will know this but just to base line. Image courtesy of Bernhardt Haussner Turns out this conversation is pretty important and what many people want to do.
Then came blogs. The Real Power of Twitter is Link Sharing. This is the fourth posting in a series I’m calling Twitter 101 for all those that say “I don’t get it?” If you want to see the full outline click on the Twitter 101 link. In the second post I talked about Twitter being like Instant Messaging (IM) and text messaging (SMS) and that is the reason for the 140 character limit. Many people I speak with mock the 140 character limit as it was even parodied by Maureen Dowd in this much mocked Op-Ed in the NY Times. I actually think that the service would be slightly more useful if it was a 250 character limit but I do like the brevity imposed by a having a limit so I tolerate 140. But the main point of this post is to point out to people who “don’t get” Twitter why the 140 character limit isn’t the problem they imagine it to be.
In the best Twitter posts people will write a little bit of text commenting on a topic and then provide a link to an article for the reader to learn more. Twitter Should Decentralize (And Make Money) Via Twitter Server. Why Twitter is underhyped and is probably worth five to 10 billi. Why people care how Twitter makes money. Friday, April 03, 2009 by Dave Winer. First a story.. I went to grad school in Madison, which is a great place except in the winter, when it's realllly cold.
But it's still great then, if you know what to eat. You want to fill your stomach with something dense and warm. There was this place down the street from where I lived that served something called a Myles Teddy Wedger. I have no idea how it got its name, but it's a pastry, filled with meat, potatoes and onions, served really hot. You could buy one of these and carry it to class with you, walking even a mile, and when you got there it would still be hot!
So as you're walking you can think of the MTW in your knapsack and psychically the thought would keep you warm. Okay that had nothing to do with why people want to know how Twitter is going to make money. Another good cold weather food is pizza. See, their business model conflicted with our values. So it's possible for a business to use its profits for evil.