This morning Twitter released a new set of API guidelines that changes Twitter’s policy regarding in stream advertising. Twitter does not want 3rd parties like Sponsored Tweets using the API to publish advertising directly to your stream.
Twitter has made a number of refinements to their advertising policy for 3rd parties like Sponosored Tweets over the past year. We have adjusted along with them, doing our best to comply with Twitter’s best practices.
You Own Your Tweets
Twitter maintains that they don’t seek to control what a user tweets. They also state that you own your tweets. There are no rules prohibiting people sharing sponsored or commercial messages, they just don’t want it automated through an API.
You can still tweet about our sponsors. You can still promote your employer. You can still drive traffic to your blog. You can still share amazon affiliate links. You can still use your account to tweet out deals. You still have freedom to do what you like with your Twitter account, so long as you aren’t a spammer.
So What Does This Mean?
No more direct publishing.
We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be publishing directly to your account through the Twitter API. Instead you will have to write the tweet yourself in whatever Twitter client you see fit.
Yes, it will be a more manual process. Yes, we liked the old way better too. But we want to comply with Twitters guidelines and be a good ecosystem partner. We have always made adjustments to our system to remain in compliance. Twitter has allotted 30 days to make this change, we will try to get it out as soon as we can. Until then it is business as usual.
Curation.
In addition to the direct publishing change we are going to start curating our list more carefully with human account reviews and more automated tools. Most of you guys are solid tweeters, but there are also some people trying to take advantage of the system. These people will not be able to participate in future campaigns.
Our goal remains to provide you the best sponsored tweets platform out there. We will continue to refine our platform as the landscape changes.
Lugoves said on 5.24.10 at 3:59 pm
I have no problem Manually sending them thru Sponsored Tweets, perhaps when we send them through for approval, we manually cut and paste them to our twitter client of choice. Sponsored Tweets will still have to supervise compliance and/or whether resubmission is necc. re-tweet. Please keep us posted. Thanks.
_SKG said on 5.24.10 at 4:04 pm
Hey guys, I thought you were owned by Twitter? Completely confused now. I'm not worried by the changes at all. I'm cool with manually tweeting. I have a question though. I just got a link from "Truetwit." Is this part of the validation process?
Morgan Requiem said on 5.24.10 at 4:37 pm
So then, for posts that used to be made for us at a specific time..
would we too have to post them according to the schedule of the Sponsor?
Like for example, the posts that are made to advertise a show/event
Would we too have to Tweet it out ourselves at that exact moment in time..?
Jessca said on 5.24.10 at 4:58 pm
So, if I have an account that has over 1,500 followers that ACTIVELY respond to RTs that are taken care of with TwitterFeed ( such as http://twitter.com/concert_goers ), then am I going to have a problem? I also have http://twitter.com/muppetsightings and that also gets a lot of positive feedback. I also do a lot of responding myself. They get on #FollowFrdays every week too and are on numerous lists.
I really like the fact that my SponsoredTweet ads are tailored to each account, but I think the whole thing of having to WAIT for an advertiser to respond to our idea and THEN have to tweet it ourselves and THEN having to wait on the advertiser to check it again - well, it's confusing!
Kim Randall said on 5.24.10 at 5:12 pm
So happy that there is still a place for Sponsored Tweets! I have no issues with Tweeting my Tweet manually and I doubt many people will.
LP said on 5.24.10 at 5:58 pm
You are adjusting to this exceptionally well. They could have at least given you a head's up while you were creating your system than spring this on you a year later. Glad to hear that Sponsored Tweets will persevere.
Wess Stewart said on 5.24.10 at 7:29 pm
So does this mean that my wordpress plugin won't be able to post links to my blog when I publish a post
Yeah, it's slightly off topic, but whatever. It kind of ticks me off that I'll have to change the whole way I operate.
Phew! Kim Kardashian Can Still Earn Money With Her Twitter Stream said on 5.24.10 at 8:30 pm
[...] CEO of SponsoredTweets parent company, Izea, Ted Murphy has posted an update with the details of how his SponsoredTweets service will work going forward. Ted notes that his [...]
Kris Cain said on 5.24.10 at 9:43 pm
Thanks. This makes me feel better. I don't mind doing the tweets manually at all.
Phew! Kim Kardashian Can Still Earn Money With Her Twitter Stream | atomicgate.com said on 5.24.10 at 10:11 pm
[...] CEO of SponsoredTweets parent company, Izea, Ted Murphy has posted an update with the details of how his SponsoredTweets service will work going forward. Ted notes that his [...]
Justin Smalwood said on 5.24.10 at 11:13 pm
Cool whatever works best! Don't have a problem with it at all. Thanks for the updates. :)
The Braindead Techcast Ep. 68: The bluebird craps on advertisers - SeanPAune.com said on 5.25.10 at 1:03 am
[...] Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets - Sponsored Tweets Blog [...]
Mark Mayhew said on 5.25.10 at 1:52 am
I had forgotten sposored tweets even existed, I haven't received one in months, ever since I'm one sponsored tweet away from reaching $50 (and finally eligible to be paid)
hmmmm...
John Linux said on 5.25.10 at 2:13 am
What about a popup window that takes you to tweeter web with the desired update loaded?? This wont be as bad copy paste. Just a suggestion
3rd Party Apps Blindsided by Twitter | Extreme Social Media said on 5.25.10 at 7:09 am
[...] did, however, find an article on Sponsored Tweets blog talking about the changes and how it will affect users: We are going to make some changes to the [...]
LP said on 5.25.10 at 10:55 am
According to Ryan Sarver in the Twitter Development Group, this change WON'T affect Sponsored Tweets, just services that randomly insert ads in user's timelines (where at ST, the user writes the update).
I'll be glad when this gets publicly clarified.
Lisa Marie Mary said on 5.25.10 at 10:59 am
I have no problem submitting them manually, either. This might just turn out to be something we (including the IZEA team) all love even better. You never know! ;)
SociaListed » Twitter Puts The Kibosh On Automatic Ads said on 5.25.10 at 12:01 pm
[...] I head over to Sponsored Tweets and check out what they’ve got to say: Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be [...]
The trouble with “Stacking” your business « Harris Fellman said on 5.25.10 at 1:10 pm
[...] to advertising that will drastically effect a company that I personally use and recommend called Sponsored Tweets as well as others with similiar business [...]
Brett said on 5.25.10 at 1:42 pm
OK, so practically speaking if I just had something approved(1 hour ago, 1 day after this blog post) to be tweeted at a future date (6/1) do I need to go in on 6/1 and tweet this?
I'm assuming yes, but since the system won't be pushing this out via the api, will you have the ability to track that I've actually tweeted it myself, or do I need to submit something manually for proof afterwards.
The current system is still coded for the old system (no surprise there, its only been 24 hours), but I think I'm missing the temporary instructions on what to do from here on out. ????
What Does Twitters New Advertising Announcement Mean? said on 5.25.10 at 3:39 pm
[...] night Sponsored Tweets CEO Ted Murphy posted how they are moving forward in a well written out blog post. Basically stating they are proceeding ahead… just without the [...]
Classifieds For Free said on 5.25.10 at 4:16 pm
ROI on twitter advertising is not good in the first place. There are better alternatives. I have found good stuff in Twitter which are not ads but ads are not good.
Let’s Get Physical: WeReward, Loopt, Others Push Users Into Real Stores said on 5.25.10 at 6:40 pm
[...] paid to tweet,” Murphy says (unlike his other business, Sponsored Tweets, which changed its model following Twitter’s new [...]
Twitter Sticking The Boot Into Ad Networks | Pyrogenic Media said on 5.25.10 at 7:31 pm
[...] There has been a small reaction from Sponsored Tweets. They wrote a small blog post up here : http://sponsoredtweets.com/changes-coming-to-sponsored-tweets/ [...]
What Does Twitters New Advertising Announcement Mean? | Internet Marketing Guide said on 5.25.10 at 8:03 pm
[...] night Sponsored Tweets CEO Ted Murphy posted how they are moving forward in a well written out blog post. Basically stating they are proceeding ahead… just without the [...]
Let’s Get Physical: WeReward, Loopt, Others Push Users Into Real Stores | Web Design Cool said on 5.25.10 at 8:36 pm
[...] paid to tweet,” Murphy says (unlike his other business, Sponsored Tweets, which changed its model following Twitter’s new [...]
Rebecca Woodhead said on 5.25.10 at 9:10 pm
I'm actually really happy about this. There are times when you're chatting on twitter and the right people are there, asking for an ad and you can't supply it. If it's handled manually, it will be much easier to do things in a way that makes sense to followers and is more likely to be effective and well received.
Third-Party Ad Networks Banned from Twitter API | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins said on 5.25.10 at 10:04 pm
[...] Sponsored Tweets from IZEA quickly responded with changes to their system. [...]
Third-Party Ad Networks Banned from Twitter API « Adjoozey Network said on 5.25.10 at 10:18 pm
[...] Sponsored Tweets from IZEA quickly responded with changes to their system. [...]
Let’s Get Physical: WeReward, Loopt, Others Push Users Into Real Stores – ditted said on 5.25.10 at 10:41 pm
[...] paid to tweet,” Murphy says (unlike his other business, Sponsored Tweets, which changed its model following Twitter’s new [...]
Twitter Puts The Kibosh On Automatic Ads – 96th Edition | Tweet Cash said on 5.26.10 at 1:58 am
[...] I head over to Sponsored Tweets and check out what they’ve got to say: Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be [...]
Nikunj said on 5.26.10 at 10:00 am
Dont Mind Tweeting manually this article was really useful. Thanks its a relief.
Webmaster said on 5.26.10 at 10:13 am
It is likely that this will change the type of people using this service as some of the comments have said they wouldn't mind manually tweeting. I would guess that a majority of users would be too lazy, and @Brett raised a good point does this change how you track sponsored tweets?
I would guess that if you sent the message via a DM to their account they can easily cut and paste that and tweet it manually fairly easily...
Twitter esclude la pubblicità dalle sue API. | Geek My Love said on 5.26.10 at 11:50 am
[...] la risposta di Sponsored Tweets, uno dei network pubblicitari più famosi, che in una nota diffusa subito dopo, ha specificato che stanno già provvedendo a modificare il loro sistema di [...]
Third-Party Ad Networks Banned from Twitter API | Affiliate Marketing said on 5.26.10 at 12:59 pm
[...] Sponsored Tweets from IZEA quickly responded with changes to their system. [...]
Lyn Lomasi said on 5.26.10 at 2:37 pm
I definitely don't mind doing it manually. It's an extra step, but not really that big of a deal. Compliance is more important than convenience.
nimil said on 5.26.10 at 6:20 pm
thank you for clearing this up! i was worried about that announcement. i have absolutely no problem with manually tweeting! just glad you guys aren't going to have to shut down.
Jenn said on 5.26.10 at 6:21 pm
Thanks for posting this, Ted. I don't mind switching to manual publishing -- as long as it gets the job done, right? :)
After ban, Twitter ad firms put on brave face | Advertising Balloons said on 5.26.10 at 9:06 pm
[...] paid tweets as long as they aren’t dropped in automatically through the Twitter API. Izea CEO Ted Murphy quickly noted that his Sponsored Tweets service only had to deactivate a “direct publishing” option. [...]
Lance Crossman Sr. said on 5.27.10 at 4:06 am
Now this is what I have been hoping for. I am a TWEET solder and have ethical ways of doing the job better than the limits of an API. People will find out that the new way will be awesome! btw... I love how you are growing and helping all of us make a full time income. Thanks from my team to yours!
@internetGO2GUY
http://twitter.com/internetGO2GUY
Jessica said on 5.27.10 at 12:51 pm
Great news. At least there is still a way to monetize our Twitter streams.
clickusername said on 5.28.10 at 12:12 am
Just found out about this on Shoemoney. Hope I can get at least one cashout.
Twitter Banning API-based Ad Tweets | Online Bits and Pieces said on 5.28.10 at 4:19 am
[...] CEO Ted Murphy however stated in his blog post that the company is proceeding ahead — without the [...]
The Death of the sponsored tweet. | SocialTips - Get Your Social Media Fix said on 5.28.10 at 4:58 pm
[...] changes was one of the most popular services Sponsored Tweets. They have laid out their views and changes here but the gist of it is they are making the service manual and will manually go through [...]
Twitter Puts The Kibosh On Automatic Ads – 106th Edition | Tweet Cash said on 6.8.10 at 7:42 am
[...] I head over to Sponsored Tweets and check out what they’ve got to say: Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be [...]
Twitter changes policy on automatic ads | TwitMktg said on 6.24.10 at 8:04 pm
[...] their own they plan to make to comply with Twitter’s new Terms of Service. Following is what Sponsored Tweets said about the change: We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will [...]
Twitter Puts The Kibosh On Automatic Ads – 116th Edition | Tweet Cash said on 7.4.10 at 6:23 pm
[...] I head over to Sponsored Tweets and check out what they’ve got to say: Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be [...]
Changes to Sponsored Tweets Platform | Affiliate By Night said on 7.12.10 at 1:44 pm
[...] API to allow us to write and post sponsored tweets. At the time, Sponsored Tweets was planning to change over to a manual system where the user would need to physically tweet out their sponsored post so as not to use the Twitter [...]
Twitter Puts The Kibosh On Automatic Ads – 123th Edition | Tweet Cash said on 7.14.10 at 12:47 am
[...] I head over to Sponsored Tweets and check out what they’ve got to say: Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be [...]
Changes to the SponsoredTweets Platform | Affaholic.com said on 7.20.10 at 1:27 pm
[...] API to allow us to write and post sponsored tweets. At the time, Sponsored Tweets was planning to change over to a manual system where the user would need to physically tweet out their sponsored post so as not to use the Twitter [...]