November 17, 2011 21 Comments

Burn Your Money

advertising on trending topics: does it work?

In typical Chris Brogan fashion, I’m talking out my butt on this one. I have NO idea whether this is really useful or not. Does paying for a trending topic “ad” on Twitter work? Do you see noticeable uptick when you pay for one? Because I’ve got to be honest: when I see a paid trending topic, I think, “Wow, they couldn’t get our attention on a social network any other way?” And then I rush to see what those people normally say to people on Twitter. (Hint: never anything especially engaging).

Why Not Just BURN Your Money?

The thing that bugs me most when I see ineffective marketing or advertising isn’t that I think it makes the industry look bad. No, I just want the money someone spent on something I perceive of as not all that great so that I could do something more useful with it.

I can’t begin to tell whether paying for a sponsored “trending topic” mention is useful. I’d love to hear from people who can say so definitively. But in the larger context, if you’re going to bother using social media, why use it like traditional media? Why use it to place spots?

Educate me?

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  • http://twitter.com/ListenUpBucko Cynthia C

    I find those lists silly and entertaining, but never anything I’d click thru. I think people assume it’s paid for and can’t be bothered to click through. I say spend the money on something else. 

  • Megan Owen

    When I first starting using Twitter I thought the trends were a great refrence on what was going on. However, after realizing they are just ways to promote yourself or your product I stopped looking at them. I feel like this is such a waste…it is like a commercial that you would normally fast forward through. It could have been such a great tool to monitor thought patterns or new ideas, but it turned out to be a major fail.

  • Jackie

    I rarely use the trending topics. And find a paid for trending topic a bit of an oxymoron.

  • http://twitter.com/DonMedia Don Mitchell

    Like you, I don’t see the value in either a promoted topic or a promoted tweet anchored to the head of a hashtag.  The only interaction I’ve ever had with a brand doing that was to point out how annoying it was.  Ironically it was a brand I abandoned years ago for their inept old school customer service.  It was obvious the move to Social Media had not made them any better at it.

  • http://twitter.com/varatiki Derrik Jacobson

    Trending Topics? Aren’t those what you see when you actually use the Twitter website?

    After logging in there, I currently I see: “Things that Need to Stop”, “Question for My Crush”, and a few other cryptic items. Useful? Absolutely not. Do I pay attention to them? No. I think I’d rather head over to some celebrity buzz page to see what Justin Bieber is up to.

    I rely on the people that I have intentionally curated into my own lists to provide me with any news, interests, and/or industry insight that I am interested in hearing about. I completely agree with your point about the usage of social media for blasting traditional marketing messages: it’s a waste. Instead, spend your time and money developing a marketing plan that is entertaining, or, at the least, interesting to encourage people to talk about your business. That’s the end goal, right?

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    I actually find a lot of these extremely annoying because they are not always relevant. Case in point: drupal. Someone had the bright idea to advertise for wordpress hosting for that keyword. I can honestly say, not that useful… and kinda annoying as it just takes up space and probably goes unclicked.

    Now if it was #wordpress… that would be an (arguably) useful ad!

  • http://www.clickandinc.com/blog Sarah

    This is a great question, and reading the comments has been very interesting as well. If I hadn’t developed a blind spot to paid advertisements that enables me to gloss right over them, I might have thought to wonder the same thing…

  • http://www.findingforrest.com Ben Forrest

    This would not be the case for all brands but I could see in the case of #storagewars it being a strategic branding move. I am only assuming it has to do with a television show (one I have never watched, but I have seen on the guide). Whether I read the tweets or not, as I flip through the channels tonight, I may see “Storage Wars” and decide to watch it this time, because somewhere in my experience I may recall a lot of people are supposedly talking about it which means it must be good, right? 

    Better ratings equals more money. The question still remains as to whether there is any ROI and if so how much?

  • Anonymous

    I also question the thinking behind throwing ad dollars at twitter…then again, I’m engaged in technology marketing. For some consumer technology brands, it may work. For example, if a celebrity computer hack case is trending heavy, a security company with an easy-to-install solution may be able to gain a return on their investment.

  • http://twitter.com/solrepublic SOL REPUBLIC

    Chris, you are absolutely right! When I see a promoted trending topic, I roll my eyes and wonder the same thing as you: They couldn’t get my attention another way? The only reason I’ll ever click is out of pure curiosity…and usually you’ll see the same thing: users complaining about why the topic is trending.
    I can’t understand why any company would promote a trending topic. All it demonstrates is their complete lack of understand of the Twitter platform…and maybe social media.
    - Shaina (SOL REPUBLIC)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_STRPDEJVFNVBKNLKMJP2FUSCYM Rae

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  • http://www.themanwifechronicles.com/ David Kaa

    I’m going to disagree here. This drives me nuts about you marketing types – it’s not about YOU. Just because YOU don’t use it or YOU don’t like it doesn’t matter.

    Moreover, it’s part of experimenting. You people talk about trying new methods. Here people are trying something new, and you criticize it. Maybe they’re actully testing different channels. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. But if you don’t get the YOU out of your head, you’ll never know.

    • Rachel

      I’m curious if I read the same post as you, David.

      I clicked through with the express intention of skipping over Chris’ article to come straight to the comments – I was acting on the very last line of Chris’ post – “Educate me”. I too was curious to find out how other people viewed these promoted tweets, perhaps find out if anyone had seen any ROI, maybe point me towards some brandsw doing it well, offer their personal insights. Instead, the very first comment I see is yours, inferring that the author made some kind of self-servicing tirade about his experience of promoted tweets.

      What I read was a stimulus post, someone asking whether those brands promoting tweets might have failed to step up the mark with social marketing and pondering over whether they might be trying to take a short cut to raise their profile, someone putting a hypothesis out there and asking for feedback. My understanding was that Chris’ was ultimately asking was whether his readers could educate him and give back some of their experiences to the community around this blog… 

      Perhaps I have misunderstood the original post and you are absolutely on the money, David.

      Educate me.   

      • http://www.themanwifechronicles.com/ David Kaa

        I was referring to the comments. Although, I see how you would read the post, then my comment and it totally doesn’t make sense.

  • http://www.seobywebmechanix.com Arsham Mirshah

    You COULD burn your money, it would be relatively the same as sponsoring on twitter, BUT you gotta imagine it gets SOME recognition just being up there, right?

    I haven’t done anything on twitter, but I can tell you that buying FB ads for your page will certainly get you more “likes” — are they useful or productive likes?  Maybe not — but that has to be more effective than just straight burning your cash, right?

  • http://isragarcia.es Isra García

    It would be awesome if we could see figures of how much traffic drive sponsored topics. Also, conversion rates. The we’ll see if they’re burning the money. Thanks for sharing Chris.

  • http://www.parleo.com Parleo

    The one good use that I have seen was when the Egyptian revolution was kicking off in January and it was all over twitter. Al Jazeera English had a promoted tweet link to their live stream TV page. The right link in front of the right audience at the right time. Great advertising.

    I guess they could choose which hashtags to appear with, so as to target the potential audience exactly.

  • http://www.instahype.it Peter Kadas, Dr.

    Agreed 100%. I’m thinking the same when seeing a sponsored trending topic on Twitter. I’d have much better ideas to monetize Twitter. Actually, I’m working on it… : )

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