The Moonfruits of Your Labor

Ah viruses. We don't like them 99.9% of the time, but social media marketers constantly hanker and hunger for that big "viral" campaign.

Like crackheads with a scummy, busted pipe they demand, "Gimme gimme gimme that campaign that's all HIV Ebola, Man. Need me a viral!!!!"

And how does that work on Twitter - Well, good and bad. It can work extraordinarily well, because a lot of Twitter is set to be viral. Retweet this, hashmark that, follow me, follow you, ease on down, ease on down the yellow twitterbrick road.

But twitter, because of it's limited bandwidth,

server space, and community and central

policing, has the priority of controlling the

tweetage that flows.

And like the WHO (World Health Organization)

it has a stake in preventing widespread outbreaks

of viruses.

So when MOONFRUIT, a UK company, sought

to expand "brand awareness" by giving away

free Macbooks with a sweepstakes, all you had

to do was put #moonfruit in your tweet, it

became quite the trendy topic!

IT BECAME MORE THAT 2.5% of all TWITTER TRAFFIC.

And then it was off trending topics. Just like that.

Twitter put the trendhammer down.

It seems moonfruit even understood why.

ARTICLE ON MOONFRUITTER EVENT ON TWITTER

The last thing Twitter needs is to become sick with such "viruses" from viral campaigns.

But at the same time, companies are seeking to connect with customers.

But the social media sites have an obligation to protect their users...

REMEMBER WHEN FACEBOOK ENDED THE BURGER KING WHOPPER PROMOTION?

I am sure we will continue to see the adfolks and marketing wizards create new virals that sneak in here and there.

That is part of creativity and fun.

And Twitter and Facebook and others need revenue streams.

Where the balance between the two falls, who knows? But I bet marketers and adfolks won't be happy because they will be paying more for it, and demanding analytics that justify that cash.