Is it ethical to sell tweets?

Beverly Level X³

August 2, 2012, 10:57 am

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Is it ethical to sell tweets?

This question is not about whether or not you'd make money selling tweets as I know many webmasters/bloggers who actually earn a decent income with paid tweet. It's more about the ethics of selling tweets. Is this the right thing to do considering how much effort it takes to develop a loyal following on a social networking site? I've seen some Twitter accounts spammed up with paid tweet ads and it makes me wonder just how long the followers will put up with that before they go elsewhere.

How do you ensure that you're doing the right thing for your readers/followers when selling tweets?

Are you picky over which companies you will tweet ads for? Or, do you accept all advertisers even if their products don't actually serve your followers best interests?

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robertman11

robertman11

It is kind of a gray area I guess. If you specify that it is a sponsored tweet, wouldn't that clear up any ethical issues?

12 years ago

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Beverly

Beverly

It is kind of a gray area I guess. If you specify that it is a sponsored tweet, wouldn't that clear up any ethical issues?

Some sites already require you to disclose when a tweet is sponsored for their product. That way there is transparency in dealing with the public. In some areas, bloggers are being required to disclose that they have paid links on their site too.

12 years ago

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Tommy Matalino

Tommy Matalino

As far as I know Twitter didn't really allow users to sell tweets. But we all know people still do it, right?
It's just, they (or we) are doing it as normally as possible.

12 years ago

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Beverly

Beverly

As far as I know Twitter didn't really allow users to sell tweets. But we all know people still do it, right?
It's just, they (or we) are doing it as normally as possible.

Do you tell your followers that a tweet is sponsored or do you act like you're tweeting about that site because you like it?

12 years ago

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Tommy Matalino

Tommy Matalino

Do you tell your followers that a tweet is sponsored or do you act like you're tweeting about that site because you like it?

I do it as normal as possible. I rarely put [AD] or [Sponsored] on my posts.

12 years ago

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dragonhunter95

dragonhunter95

Hey, I hope it is also same as advertising on your site. So I dont see any problem with that

9 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

I didn’t know that you can tweet an ad just like an Instagram influencer who would post a selfie with a product for an endorsement. If the paid tweet is about an ad that is obviously paid then the followers should be thinking because it is apparent that the one who tweets an ad is using his followers to earn money. As you said it’s not really the earning of money but the ethics of tweeting an ad to the annoyance of the followers.

6 years ago

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