Increasingly, companies looking to tap into social marketing are paying key influencers to tweet about their brand or product. The ethics of these sponsored posts is being debated within the Twitter community. Is there a difference between Paris Hilton tweeting about Armani purses, and Tiger Woods appearing in a Buick ad?  Most consumers recognize that Tiger Woods has been paid to talk about the product, not many would realize that Paris Hilton was as well.

The FTC has recently begun cracking down on paid tweets.  This is leading companies to develop policies requiring paid tweeters to add a short disclosure like “sponsored by” before any tweet goes out.

With new disclosure guidelines, paid tweets may come to be viewed in the same light as most other web advertising, a normal part of online commerce.  This will lessen the effectiveness and soften exposure as consumers will come to question the credibility of the paid endorsement.  In addition, the ability to un-follow a tweeter will be viewed similarly to ad blockers in web browsers.  As a result, sponsored tweets will find a place somewhere between display ads and true organic word of mouth media.