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Using 4INFO's Mobile Advertising Solutions to Get More Followers on Twitter

Posted by Zaw Thet on May 04, 2009 at 04:27 PM PDT

I am really excited to post about a new program we launched last week to help marketers in the Twitterverse drive more followers to their tweets. MocoNews first broke the news on Friday and the reaction and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

I know there has been a crazy influx of Twitter news lately, but we hope this is going to not just be a passing newsflash, but will have a crucial impact on the ways people think about using mobile advertising and also how it could eventually be used to monetize Twitter or other like services. We've seen all sorts of different types of media being used to drive followers to Twitter (outdoor like @nakedpizza, online like Google and TurboTax, OOH like LandRover, viral like Ashton, etc.)...but we've never seen a mobile ad unit that helps brands drive followers and that uses the content of real tweets to entice consumers. It is easy to forget that Twitter is both a web AND mobile phenomenom. 20% of Twitters choose to get SMS updates, so it is only natural that brands are going to find a more receptive and targeted audience on MOBILE then elsewhere.

We (@4INFO for you Twitterati) launched a pilot with seven of our brand partners for a one month test on our Mobile Ad Network (SMS/WAP/iPhone). This gives them some cool new ways to introduce consumer audiences to their Twitter feeds (using actual tweets in their ads) and gives them a compelling way to keep these folks coming back for more. In exchange, our brand partners have agreed to share the metrics at the end of one month – where I am pretty sure we will see some generous lift and hopefully a whole host of dedicated new followers.

While it’s true that the Twitter news isn’t all roses –to me, this underscores the issue that while people like the idea of following a personality or brand – these personalities and brands don’t always know how to attract "followers" or keep a person engaged. Enter 4INFO the brands we’re launching with for our pilot this month include the NBA, Microsoft ExecTweets, Road and Track Magazine, Turtle Wax, Eggland and the UFC. Here’s an example of one we’re doing with the NBA on SMS and on the Mobile Web:

Of course, we'll be freely sharing all data from this trial with our friends at Twitter and the rest of the digital community. As Albert Einstein famously said, "no amount of experimentation could ever prove me right, and it takes only one experiment to prove me wrong." So, let's see what happens. You with me? Text FOLLOW ZAWTHET (or FOLLOW 4INFO, FOLLOW NBA, or FOLLOW TURTLEWAXTOMMY or FOLLOW ROAD_AND_TRACK or FOLLOW EGGLANDSBEST or FOLLOW EXECTWEETS) to 40404. There is a lot of interest so please bear with us as we gather and sort out the results of this trial. We promise that when we open it up to other marketers, in a month or two, that there will be some great data to share and some very exciting new tools that we're not quite ready to make public yet. Until then, see you on Twitter!

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