The Elephant in the Room

Fun fact: You can get paid as much as $13,000 for a single brand endorsing tweet. Before you start flooding your Twitter feeds, waiting for the $5,000 offer to roll in, you need to be famous first. By famous, I mean CRAZY famous, with hundred of thousands of followers in your pocket.

With the increasing popularity of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it comes with no shock that firms have now turned to the Twitter-sphere to reach out to the masses. Specifically, to attract the quintessential smartphone-obsessed Generation Y and Z population. The growing purchasing power of Generation Y and Z-ers has made them a highly viable target market, and whatbetter way to reach them than through their life source, the Internet, or more specifically, their Twitter feeds.

Sources show that Grammy-nominated R&B singer-songwriter Tyrese can rake in $7,800, while reality TV star Khloe Kardashian and American heartthrob Jared Leto can earn a whopping $13,000 for a single endorsed tweet.

But this brings about a new dilemma, when celebrities and people with large fan bases on social networks feature a product or service, it’s usually impossible to know if it’s a legitimate mention or if they were paid to say nice things about it. Miley Cyrus’ post, highlighting BlackJet, a Silicon Valley start-up, is a perfect example. The arrangements between BlackJet and Cyrus are unclear but BlackJet has disclosed to the New York Times that the pop star “was given some consideration for her tweet.”

Twitter @MileyCyrus

When it is not explicitly marked that the tweet is an ad, the public is led to believe in these plugs even if the tweet wasn’t personally written by the stars themselves, infuriating the Federal Trade Commission. However, products bathed in star power tend to sell whether or not viewers realize the endorsers are receiving payment for their services. Plus, celebrity Twitter feeds are so exceptionally curated that any hopes of credibility is probably misplaced.

This brings me to my closing question. Are celebrity endorsed tweets prime examples of #irresponsible tweeting or should user just wise up about Twitters commercial applications?