Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday. What if we could pay for our Black Friday purchases with a simple tweet (or a like)?
Although we can’t pay for our fancy new DVD player simply by tweeting, a new company aptly called “Pay with a Tweet” has started a new service where anyone who is trying to grow their reach can offer their products for the simple price of a tweet. They call themselves the “first social payment system” where “people pay with the value of their social network.”
Their premise is very simple. Simply create a “Pay Button” on their site, where you enter the name of the file to be downloaded, the location (they don’t host files), the tweet you want, and the shortened link to include with the tweet. They provide the code for your new download button. That’s it. Then when someone tries to download your item, they first need to send the tweet you have prepared. Nothing more.
And big brands are getting on board. Kellogg’s used this service in a “Tweet Shop” 
to launch its latest Special K range of cracker crisps in Soho, London. All you had to do is visit the store for your “free” package of chips, and tweet out that you were doing so. They even displayed the tweets on their “tweet wall”. Kellogg’s gets your influence, and you get products. It seems like a “win-win” for everyone.
But, is it ethical? This isn’t a question I could answer, but in my opinion, it is. All you are asking people to do is tell their network that you received the item. Although many people may feel that this is an implicit endorsement, it is no different than people following brands on Twitter or liking them on Facebook. After all, by liking a brand on Facebook, we are telling our network (we have an average of 229 friends, according to Pew Research Center) that we trust that brand. Is paying with a tweet any different? And this may just be the perfect way for local musicians to get their new music to the ears of more people, or a great way for a new author to get his books into the hands of people he may never have been able to reach.
In the end, all we are doing is asking people to leverage their network to help. And isn’t that what social media is all about?
What do you think of this new marketing tactic? Will you give it a try?
Resources:
Pay with a Tweet
Brilliant. Kellogg’s Opens Pay-with-a-Tweet Pop-up Shop in Soho
Pay With a Tweet – Inc. Magazine
Is “Pay With a Tweet” an Ethical Marketing Practice?
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