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By Lilian Mahoukou

Twitter is well-known for its ecosystem and large range of apps. OneForty.com, the Twitter app store founded by Laura Fitton, has listed more than 2600 apps so far.

This morning I came across a Twitter tool called MyLikes while monitoring the latest tweets about word-of-mouth. The purpose of this service is to give cash to influencers to tweet what they like; they also have the option to donate earned amounts.

Domino’s  also recently launched a social ad programme which repays bloggers and social networkers whose readers click through on an ad widget. This new spin on traditional click-through advertising adds a murky element of incentivisation for page owners’ recommendations and opinions about the brand.

We always ask this question when confronted with mechanisms encouraging paid WOM:

is it strategically meaningful to pay influencers to talk about a product or a service?

I don’t think so.  Monetary rewards modify behaviors, attract money grabbers, encourage spamming forms of communication and in fact make the independent, trusted WOM even more valuable. Now, more than ever, people have the possibility (and the choice) to filter the noise and to refuse to listen.

You can’t buy word-of-mouth. You have to deserve it.

But do you disagree? Do you really think there is a place for paid WOM in the social sphere, if it is transparent, with appropriate disclaimers? Or do you feel, like I do, that it’s basically a waste of everyone’s time and money?

Like this?

Brought into the world on Monday, April 12th, 2010 and filed under 1000thoughts, Case Studies.

  • http://www.stuartwitts.com/ Stuart Witts

    I remember discussing something very similar to this with Farhan at the pre-likeminds meetup.Paying someone to spread the word about your brand can only work truthfully when the person involved is unaware of which action or product was the catalyst.

  • pszomszor

    Instinctively, I'd so no, you shouldn't have to pay for WOM. Apart from the common sense factor, as a PR bod, I'm ingrained to the idea of 'below the line' marketing. That's why when advertising agencies do online PR/social media, it's usually on a paid for basis, guaranteeing a set number of hits, often garnered from various networks and arrangements. I guess the question is what sort of WOM work are you talking about? Lots of links are provided for on a paid-for basis, which is one thing. Paying people for reviews is quite something else.

  • http://twitter.com/ClaireatWaves Claire Thompson

    I thought paid blogging was a grey area, but at least there there's room for a disclosure. On Twitter? Seems pointless at both ends – if you want someone to tweet about your product, presumably it's because they're an influencer with some credibility. If they take paid tweets, they lose that credibility – bad for both brand and blogger. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

    There are better, more genuine ways than this to influence. Harder work, granted, but more sustainable.

  • http://benjaminellis.org/ BenjaminEllis

    Seems they have confused “WOM” with “annoying the living daylights out of random people's friends”.

    From my perspective, if it is paid for above the cost of delivery, and delivered purely as a financially motivated message rather than at least partly as a recommendation, then it is advertising. Surely?

  • Lilian

    Thanks for your comments ! @Stuart @pszomszor @Claire @Benjamin

    I think the idea behind the “My Likes” site, is to take advantage of retweets and the law of numbers on Twitter.

    @Claire questions the sustainability point of this strategy, as it's very focused on the monetary reward.

    It may illustrate the huge difference between “using people to push messages, to advertise”, and “connecting with people to build a strong recommendability, deep relationships”.

  • karinab

    Quite a few of the sessions I attended at SXSW covered this topic, particularly when it came to Mommy Bloggers, who are a very valuable “WOM” influencer for everyday brands used in households as they are the main decison makers on household purchases.

    Many of the bloggers said they wanted to be paid either by direct payment, special experiences or donations to their favourite cause, but all said that the overriding factor for talking about a product in the first place, was that they actually liked it

    They went on to say that if their audiences thought they were just talking up a product just to earn money, that they would loose the respect of their audience and no longer have any influence.

    The bloggers also mentioned that hard sell tactics by some companies to demand that they give good reviews or get cut off from other opportunities are starting to appear more and they thought it wouldn't be long before this backfired on the companies involved.