Sponsored Tweets will “offer Twitter users the option of sending their followers messages about brands and products. Twitterers will get paid based either on the number of clicks they receive or on a flat fee per Tweet."
Much like Magpie, which launched last year and offers users a very similar pay-per-tweet program, expect a lot of controversy to erupt when Sponsored Tweets debuts. But amplify it by a few orders of magnitude, because Izea has a history, funding, and lots of existing critics. The more important issue, however, is what the implications of a program like this will be for Twitter users.
Similar to its blogging program, Sponsored Tweets will carry disclosure in the form of a #spon hashtag. In other words, if someone is being paid to tweet about a product, it will be disclosed, assuming that users follow the rules.
Personally, I think any review – on a blog or on Twitter – is immediately de-valued if the author is being paid to write it, because the objectivity is lost. However, much like blogs, you can simply ignore those who engage in pay-per-tweet schemes. In theory, this will be even easier on Twitter, because you can simply unfollow anyone you see using a #spon hashtag if you find this form of advertising particularly offensive.