Don’t you hate it when you go to a burger joint, place your order and maybe even say, “that’s all,” only to be met with the infamous question:

“Do you want fries with that?”

After hearing about be-a-magpie from Grant Griffiths on Wednesday night, I’m wondering if my twitter stream will soon become inundated with similar annoying messages.

In Theory
Here’s how it works. A twitter user signs up to allow companies to advertise products/services in the user’s twitter stream. Twitter user gets paid based on some formula. Power users have the potential to make big bucks. I’m not a power user and supposedly, even I could generate as much as $3K a month. That’s a lot of shoes!

Here’s why I don’t think it will work:

  • Twitter is about conversation, first and foremost, not about push advertising.
  • Be-a-magpie turns twitter users into “that guy.” Don’t be him.
  • People who get turned off by magpies can choose to block the person.

Would be-a-magpie be more palatable if it allowed:

  • Greater user control of ad frequency? What is the least allowable amount? Daily might be tolerable.
  • User ability to schedule ad times? Scheduling magpie tweets late at night or on weekends when there is less business use might be less offensive to some followers.
  • User choice to accept or deny certain ads based on content or personal integrity?

In the end, followers still have the ability to block people. I’m wondering if most people agree with Lucretia Pruitt? I also wonder how many users who sign up to be-a-magpie will get blocked early on, and loose their following.

Tweets will include the hashtag #magpie and as far as I can tell, will also include short promo blurb and a link. Maybe magpie could be less obtrusive if the tweets were something like, “I love Coca Cola!” At least then we might consider the tweet to be genuine consumer passion.

What do you think about all of this? Isn’t it a bit like being invited to a pool party and then peeing in the hosts pool? Or is it truly an entrepreneurial opportunity that one day will become twitter mainstream? After all, one burger joint started the whole, “Do you want fries with that?” thing in the first place and people are still using the phrase today. It’s still annoying, but I don’t think people ever stopped buying burgers because of it.

Creative Commons photo on Flickr by Old Shoe Woman.