Molly Wood, Veronica Bellmont, some Scott Johnson , and Leo Laporte had a conversation on TWIT recently about companies sponsoring tweets (stupid word).There ia a service, Izea, (there may be more than one) that will pay users to put ads in their Twitter streams. I don’t like it. Its difficult to listen to a show where the hosts talk around your point-of-view but they can’t hear you over the internet. Anyway. Here’s why I don’t like the idea:

When I go to my mailbox I expect, even though it rarely happens, to get a hand written letter or package from someone I know. Needless to say, I come away from the mailbox disappointed with a hand full of junk mail from business trying to “Sell me.” The only time  a commercial enterprise doesn’t disappoint me is when I initiated the correspondence.  If I want the catalog or coupon then the interaction is favorable.  The same is true of my email inbox. Ideally it is the point of contact for my friends and the services I’m interested in.

Again, the same is true of twitter. I follow people based on their profile, if they are micro-blogging about their business or service that I’m interested in then I’m on board when they promote to me. But, when, for a real example, when I follow a guy that writes about alternative energy, I get a little slap in the face when I see, next to his avatar, an ad for a service to get more Twitter followers, or a mass email service. But when he tells me about a new energy service or product then he has much more credibility with me.

So, as @ScottWilliams says, “U do U.” Be who you say you are on Twitter and everywhere else in life.