23andme Gives Sponsored Tweets a New Spin In The Name of Charity

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23andme23andme, the biotech company co-founded by Anne Wojcicki AKA Sergey Brin’s wife, has given the topic sponsored tweets a new spin. According to Techcrunch the company has agreed to pay $1 for the first 500 tweets with both the hashtags #blamedrewscancer and #23andme.

#Blamedrewscancer is a Twitter campaign which went viral very quickly after Drew Olanof was diagnosticized with cancer earlier this year. Ever since then Drew started blaming his cancer for everything, also via Twitter. On 09.09.09 Drew organizes a 24hour Blame-A-Thon which is also sponsored by 23andme. All proceeds of the Twitter publicity stunt and the Blame-A-Thon will go to the Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong Foundation.

Facebook To Crack Down on Sponsored Status Updates

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FacebookFacebook has decided to keep its platform clean from advertisements ran by its users in a proposed update to the Statements of Rights and Responsibilities Site Governance.

2. You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

Facebook users have time to leave feedback on the proposed changes until 18th August 10.00PDT. [Read more…]

Izea Launches Sponsored Tweets

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sponsoredtweets.jpgPayPerPost creators Izea have launched Sponsored Tweets, which is exactly what it sounds like. You’ll set a price and if an advertiser thinks it sounds good he can buy a tweet from you. Then you write something about the sponsor and tweets it along with a link. Full disclosure is mandatory, which means that this actually isn’t as evil as one would perhaps believe. They have in fact managed to ensnare a few “web celebs” such as Chris Pirillo and Loren Feldman for example. Add ex-Playboy bunny (?) Holly Madison and you’ve got a nice mix of mainstream meets geek.

Tweets are sent via OAuth login to Sponsored Tweets. Check it out, but before you do that, tell me this: Would you click a link in an obviously sponsored tweet?