Microsoft Was “Twitter's First-ever Association with a Marketer”

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 19:28:39 UTC
Modified: 2009-11-29 19:28:39 UTC

Summary: A look back at what Microsoft did to Twitter and what it continues doing to it with a new deal

EARLIER this year we wrote about Microsoft's partnership with Federated Media, which became the first time Twitter sold out to companies. Microsoft not only pioneered the corruption of Twitter's integrity (Microsoft has assigned other PR agencies like Waggener Edstrom to help subvert Twitter) but it is also bribing people to tweet positively about Microsoft products. It is a violation of FTC rules [1, 2, 3, 4]. We wrote about the subject in:

Microsoft is now further extending its intervention in Twitter, using Federated Media again.

Six months after Twitter, Microsoft and Federated Media teamed up to launch ExecTweets, a service that streams business tweets from a handpicked collection of executives, the group is debuting a new project, ExecTweets IT.

[...]

ExecTweets was Twitter's first-ever association with a marketer...

[...]

There are currently no further iterations of Exectweets in the works, according to DiPietro, but FM and Microsoft have teamed with Twitter on other projects, such as BingTweets, a mashup of Bing and Twitter search results, and Harmony Tweets, which is aimed at Toyota Prius owners.

For those who doubt Microsoft's unethical involvement in Twitter, the links above are probably required reading. ⬆

Comments

Yuhong Bao

2009-11-29 20:31:22

"became the first time Twitter sold out to companies" Twitter, Inc. themselves did not directly sell out, just to clarify. In fact none of this is Twitter's fault at all.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 20:39:54

Yuhong, they made agreements and they are teaming up with Twitter too. See the articles.

Yuhong Bao

2009-11-29 21:06:18

OK, I will read some more to see if it is true.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 21:13:06

Maybe the reports I rely on are not accurate.
Yuhong Bao

2009-11-29 21:32:02

Looks like the three did partner to create ExecTweets, which is not really unethical.
Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 21:36:28

It's a partnership that uses Twitter to advance the business of a particular company. It makes Twitter less impartial.

Yuhong Bao

2009-11-29 20:31:49

"It is a violation of FTC rules" No wonder they are bribing Korean bloggers instead.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 20:41:09

For those who are not familiar with the story:

http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/digihunter/post.htm?id=63014448&scid=rvhm_ms

Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 21:45:20

Yuhong points out that leaked Twitter E-mails show the company's reaction to Microsoft powwows:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/19/the-anatomy-of-the-twitter-attack/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/15/our-reaction-to-your-reactions-on-the-twitter-confidential-documents-post/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/14/in-our-inbox-hundreds-of-confidential-twitter-documents/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/twitters-internal-strategy-laid-bare-to-be-the-pulse-of-the-planet/

"In that same March 12th meeting, Twitter also wrestled with a proposed search advertising partnership with Microsoft. The team was “not ready” and considered this yet another “Distraction.” Worries were expressed that it would strain Twitter’s engineering resources and that any partnership with Microsoft would raise branding issues: “There is going to be a perception that we are dating.” The board was also worried about Twitter “getting into bed with Microsoft.” By the end of the discussion, someone asks, “Why did we start talking to Microsoft in the first place”?"

Yuhong Bao

2009-11-29 21:52:05

"leaked Twitter E-mails" Documents.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-11-29 22:41:41

Yes, thank you.

Microsoft Was “Twitter's First-ever Association with a Marketer”

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