Not only did Sheen break one of Twitter’s follower records by gaining a million followers in one 24-hour period (plus one hour, making it 25 and change), he’s also going make stacks of cash from his 140-word gems of wisdom. As indicated, Charlie Sheen is indeed winning and it looks like joining Twitter, allowing the sycophantic crowd to gather around him, might be his best move yet — “F-18, bro” rants aside.

According to an AdRants post, Sheen has signed a sponsored tweets deal with Ad.ly, a company that specializes in garnering celebrity endorsements in social media. The going rate for Sheen Twitter madness? 1 million dollars a year.

Clearly, it pays to be out of control, especially when you are a superstar. One wonders, however, why someone like Lindsay Lohan wasn’t as social media savvy as Sheen so obviously is? Probably because she joined Twitter before she went on her highly-publicized wild streak. The lesson for the celebrity portion of society is obvious: If you’re going to freak the hell out all over the place, make sure you join Twitter after the fact, and not before.

Charlie Sheen would refer to that as the “winning strategy,” and if you need further proof, just look at the millions — in both followers and money — he’s already racked up since joining Twitter on March 1st.

Update: Sheen also announced plans for his upcoming book, Apocalypse Me on Twitter. He also defined what the title meant, and it’s about what you’d expect.

“Warlock Latin for WINNING.”

Then, the boxes began carrying info on Twitter apps. Rather than paying for their placement, the featured apps were actually approached by Twitter. The apps being advertised didn’t pay to get there, so despite the fact that they were still called “sponsored definitions,” they weren’t ads. Nope, no way, nuh uh.

Well, now they are, apparently. Read Write Web reports that two of the “sponsored definitions,” for Cinema Tweets and the infamous ExecTweets, are really ads this time.

As RWW notes, these ads appear only on your Twitter homepage when you’re signed in, not on other Twitter users’ pages. However, since this ad format has been used since March, it’s possible that Tweeple will either a.) completely ignore the ads, just like the did the previous definitions, or b.) not realize these are ads, despite the “sponsored” marking (though we’ve seen that before ).

What do you think? Are these really ads, or are they just more of the same? Will Twitter users click on ads unwittingly, ignore them completely, or somewhere in between?

Comments

YouTube, HP Sponsor Film Contest

Their task: to create a two-to-seven minute film in which “[a] character . . . must face a situation above his or her maturity level.”  Also, according to YouTube’s press release, “[e]ach film must include the line ‘I demand an explanation for these shenanigans.  What do you have to say?’”

Finally, “[a] character must pass a photograph to someone else.”  The first requirements may just be there to provide some flavor; the last one is likely due to Hewlett-Packard’s involvement.

Following the submissions process, Jason Reitman, the writer and director behind “Thank You For Smoking,” will review the films and (along with a panel of judges) select 20 finalists.  The YouTube community can then vote for the overall winner.

And here’s where we get to the good stuff.  YouTube states, “The winner . . . will spend nine days as a guest of Hewlett-Packard at a top international Film Festival where they will attend special events, including a meeting with Fox Searchlight production executives.  The winner will also receive a $5,000 debit card and have their video played on the YouTube homepage in seven countries.”

Project Direct doesn’t guarantee a position at a movie studio.  But interested directors have from October 7th until November 9th to get their foot in this proverbial door.

YouTube has become increasingly active in the political realm as of late. Last month they launched Citizen Tube, designed to attract people to express their views on political topics.

In addition they also launched YouChoose, a presidential channel focused on the major presidential candidates.

"The idea of using the technology of YouTube and marrying it with traditional television could be really interesting" such as giving viewers new ways to comment on the debate and follow-up and ask questions of the candidates, said Bob Boorstin, director of policy communications for Google in Washington, D.C.

It could be interesting or it could be a total failure. By the time the serious meat of the 2008 election rolls around people may be so burned out from hearing the candidates say the same thing over and over that it could easily become meaningless.

Google and CNN are also working with the GOP candidates to plan a similar debate. The DNC is active in organizing debates for its candidates, while the Republican National Committee is not organizing debates for its candidates.

It is the frame of thinking which allows them to make the most money (don’t spam unless you do it with us and give us insider information on your business). If you are afraid of the consequences then you become risk adverse. But you are rarely going to do anything great if you let fear control your actions. It is an epiphany the day you realize that you created enough value that the search engines need you more than you need them.

Why does the media like to paint a wall between editorial and content when there is none?

Why is Matt Mullenweg so afraid of spam after he stepped his game up a level above anything I would consider doing? Because he feels he has to be for his credibility, especially after botching it up badly in the past.

As a recruiting technique the US government holds pizza parties with 13 year old children, getting them to play video games where the content is about killing people.

“We want kids to come into the Army and feel like they’ve already been there,” said Col. Casey Wardynski, who as director of the Army’s office of economic and manpower analysis came up with the idea. “A game is like a team effort, and the Army is very much a team effort. By playing an online, multiplayer game, you can get the feel of being in the Army.” – The Washington Post

Yet politicians talk about protecting the children online. Do you notice a moral disconnect here?

If you look at a tag cloud of presidential speeches you won’t just find issues that the population find important. You will find some of them scattered in to make the rest of the sales pitch sound legitimate, but you will also find ample amounts of bogus Orwellian language like death tax.

There is no need to repeat what is actually true and believed. Power sources only repeat things because

• they are untrue or misrepresented
• they set a frame of thinking to the benefit of the speaker
• they pull focus from other issues

Why do authority sources hate the idea of openly selling authority? Because if they openly endorsed it then they might not be able to do it themselves, and people openly and honestly selling influence create more value in richer conversations.

Value systems only exist in our minds. The value of asking for feedback is not just in the chance that people give you a better idea, but also their experience and bonding with the idea which turns the feedback giver into a person who is emotionally connected to your brand… which is especially true if you listen to their feedback. The very ability to influence Digg and Wikipedia directly are what make their brands so powerful.

When language is a commodity that is targeted, bought, sold, and repositioned against ever-shifting arbitrary quality guidelines what could be more valuable than asking influential people what words / tags / ideas they relate you to and how you could do a better job of it?

Comments

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, an ebook offering the latest
search engine optimization tips and strategies. From SEOBook.com Aaron
gives away free advice and search engine optimization tools. He is a
regular conference speaker, partner in Clientside SEM, and runs the
Threadwatch community.

Funny, I was just filming a little sponsor segment for Seagate when I came across this. I’m sending this to them.

Comments

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

Go to Scobleizer …

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization has a new sponsor joining Google, Yahoo, and Verizon Superpages. MSN will be a platinum level sponsor, and this seems to have placed MSN’s logo atop the others on SEMPO’s site.

“MSN’s willingness to become a Platinum sponsor is a clear indication of their commitment to our mission to increase awareness and promote the value of search engine marketing worldwide,” Jeffrey Pruitt, SEMPO Treasurer and co-chair of the organization’s Development Committee, said in the statement.

MSN’s move appears to be tied to its entrance into the paid search advertising market. MSN has been hiring more staff for its advertising operations, and launched the service in France and Singapore over the summer.

By endorsing SEMPO’s mission with their imprimatur, Microsoft could help validate the paid-search market with the same small and medium businesses (SMB) it has been targeting with its Dynamics software line. Part of a Microsoft software and services pitch to SMBs could include referrals to SEMPO members affiliated with MSN.

Yahoo and Google hold the dominant positions in the multi-billion dollar paid search market. But Microsoft is a Dow Jones component with a lengthy corporate history and a near ubiquitous presence on PCs and servers. Paid search could be the service that helps Microsoft break into an SMB market that has been less profitable for it than other divisions.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Pepsi was suspected of creating a fake blog but it turned out to be false.

Andy Lark understandably takes the position of it’s all in good fun. And yeah, to a certain extent, it is. By responding to it we’re just giving these brands exactly what they wanted.

Regardless, I am taking the bait. Here is my response I posted at Andy’s fine blog.

Andy: It occurs to me that McD’s is pleased as punch over all the Google juice they are getting over this. But here are a few thoughts that are more passion than righteousness.

Marketers do something like this and it is harmless fun. PR people do something like this and we’re lambasted as being unethical spinmeisters with no soul or intelligence. Phooey.

From there, the fake blog shows a complete misunderstanding of the medium. The technology is designed to create an open, honest dialogue with customers. Fake blogs say “we just want awareness. We just want control over the medium. This is how we do it…by throwing money at a fake blog.”

McD, Mazda and the lot of them are getting a response. But why don’t they get a better, longer-lasting response by sponsoring blogs? Everyone wants to tap into the potent formula of blog + RSS x search = contagious buzz.

But marketers are taking the quick route by merely raising our ire. They’re cashing in on the speed of the medium when they could spend even less perhaps and really make a positive impact on their brand. GM and Microsoft show us two very different, very good examples.

Blog sponsorship is the best of both worlds for these marketers. They can tap into Blog Power and it acknowledges that they understand blogs enough to know their agency cannot, and should not, do it for them.

Everyone wants to be first to get the reward of blogging. Blog sponsorship would seem to be the best of both worlds. It won’t make the agencies a lick of money though. So I’m betting we’ll continue down the fake path.

OK, I’ll exhale now and go get my second cup of coffee. In the meantime, I hope you’ll weigh in on this rant.

Additional Links:

Kevin Dugan is the author of the popular Strategic Public Relations blog. Kevin is Director of Marketing Communications for FRCH Design Worldwide.

Visit Kevin’s blog: Strategic Public Relations.

… popular G’Day World podcast, have launched an eBay auction to find a sponsor for the Special DEMO@15 Edition of their show.

Links:
Cameron Reilly and Mick Stanic

As of this writing the auction is up to $152 Australian dollars ($118 US dollars).

From February 13 – 15, 2005, Reilly will be attending the DEMO conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. While he’s there he will be trying to interview everyone he can. The show attracts over 5000 people from around the world downloading each show. Cam and Nick says of their audience…

“We don’t know who they all are, but we do know that many of them are movers and shakers in the IT & business world. Bloggers. CEOs. CIOs. PR gurus. Software evangelists. Want to get your message out to them in an innovative way?”

The funds raised will be used it to visit my hometown, New York, and King Scoble’s Kingdom (formerly known as “Seattle”). Sounds like a big opportunity for one lucky sponsor!

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.

“Microsoft is a long-time advocate of XML and its related body of standards,” says Joshua G. Edwards, Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Office Product Management. “We’re proud to support XML 2004 as the industry’s premier XML educational and trade event.”

XML 2004 has also added several new presentations to the “product presentation” and “late-breaking news” sessions at the conference.

“Every year, this conference covers the latest, up-to-the-minute news and events surrounding XML-based technologies and solutions,” says Conference Chair Lauren Wood. “These recent additions to the XML 2004 schedule ensure that conference attendees have access to the most recent information about technological developments. The conference also features product presentations where attendees can get an in-depth look at useful tools and integrated solutions.”

Sessions recently added to the XML 2004 program include:

– “Adobe LiveCycle — Using XML and SOA to Link People with Systems,” Duane Nickull, Senior Standards Strategist, Adobe

– “XML in the .NET Framework: Past, Present & Future,” Dare Obasanjo, Program Manager, Microsoft

– “An Approach to Visually Creating and Editing Nested Compound Documents,” Nobuaki Wake, Software Architect, and Junpei Aoki, Software Engineer, Justsystem Corporation

– “Is Now the Time for Binary XML? Report on Current W3C Activity,” Michael Leventhal, Director, XML Products, Tarari, Inc.

– “Policy Content at the Social Security Administration: Using XML and Semantic Metadata,” Terry M. Hynes, PolicyNet Program Manager, Social Security Administration, and Duane Degler, Design Consultant, Lockheed Martin /IPGems

WebProNews | Breaking eBusiness News
Your source for investigative ebusiness reporting and breaking news.