Amazon gears up to make money from Twitter

by Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh, revolutionmagazine.com 04-Nov-09, 11:52

LONDON - Amazon has integrated Twitter with its affiliate programme in a bid to increase sales.

Member's of Amazon Associates can share products with their Twitter followers by clicking on a Twitter icon, which sends a message and shortened URL to followers.

The messages, which vary the text before the link with terms like "great deal", "check out" and "just saw on Amazon", can be edited by the member prior to posting.

Any clicks on the link that result in a sale will earn the associate referral money.

Twitter users are not required to disclose any relationships they have with brands, so followers may be unaware the member will earn money if the link is clicked on. Amazon Affiliates can make money from referrals from Facebook, but MySpace has outlawed the practice.

Comments

Nigel Cooper - 06/11/2009

Interesting to see Amazon rewarding their biggest advocates and influencers with real money. Giving back to customers is certainly a good way of creating loyalty but will it make people sceptical of others peoples advocacy? Is Dave telling me how great this DVD is because he wants to make a cut from me? One would assume peer pressure and social values will persuade the average person that if they make good honest recommendations people will listen for a much longer time and maybe in greater numbers. However It still only takes a few spammers and greedy tweeters to ruin the whole system for everybody...