11.29.09
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft Was “Twitter’s First-ever Association with a Marketer”
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 Twitter Bots, FTC Blowback, and Paid-for Vista 7 Glorification
- Are Microsoft Employees (Technical Evangelists) Using Spammers in Twitter?
- More Microsoft AstroTurfing (aka ‘Technical Evangelism’) in Twitter
- User “Microsoft Incentives” Wants to be Your Friend, Too
- Microsoft’s Twitter AstroTurf Continues
- Who is Pumping MSFT and Pimping Microsoft in Twitter?
- Does Microsoft Still Create Twitter Accounts for Guerilla Marketing?
- Microsoft’s AstroTurfing, Twitter, Waggener Edstrom, and Jonathan Zuck
- Microsoft Offers Gentle Bribes to People Who Mention Vista 7 in Twitter
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. █
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Yuhong Bao said,
November 29, 2009 at 3:31 pm
“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 Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Yuhong, they made agreements and they are teaming up with Twitter too. See the articles.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
OK, I will read some more to see if it is true.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Maybe the reports I rely on are not accurate.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Looks like the three did partner to create ExecTweets, which is not really unethical.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
It’s a partnership that uses Twitter to advance the business of a particular company. It makes Twitter less impartial.
Yuhong Bao said,
November 29, 2009 at 3:31 pm
“It is a violation of FTC rules”
No wonder they are bribing Korean bloggers instead.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
For those who are not familiar with the story:
http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/digihunter/post.htm?id=63014448&scid=rvhm_ms
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 29, 2009 at 4:45 pm
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 Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
“leaked Twitter E-mails”
Documents.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Yes, thank you.