@PPL W/ #Klout: Free 3 Day #Sonic Frm #@GM

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet! If you have enough followers on Twitter and the like, Chevrolet might give you a free 2012 Sonic. Not for keeps. But for 3 days. It’s the new long-term tester of the 140 character age.

According to Automotive News [sub], General Motors has hired Klout, a company that ranks a person’s “social influence.” Well, social networking influence. In the past, people with high Klout scores received free review copies of software, deodorant, or coffee. Now, they get a car.

To be eligible, you need a “Klout score” of at least 35. It’s probably too late to prostitute yourself for followers, AN says the program already began in November and runs through Dec. 14. follows a collaboration earlier this year promoting the Volt, Chevy’s $40,000 plug-in hybrid.

139 (gee, why not 140???) drives will be offered in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco. All it costs GM is four or five Sonics on loan in each of the five cities.

The twitterati better be careful. A Federal Trade Commission guideline requires bloggers and social-media agents to disclose when writing about products they’ve gotten for free. It’s nice that the FTC has followed an example TTAC has set since day one.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Daviel Daviel on Dec 04, 2011

    Actually the third place finisher gets the sonic for 3 days; second gets it for 2; and the winner, one day.

  • Ronnie Schreiber Ronnie Schreiber on Dec 04, 2011
    A Federal Trade Commission guideline requires bloggers and social-media agents to disclose when writing about products they’ve gotten for free. It's funny. The FTC requires disclosure but in the online world you can use your soapbox for more than just getting swag. A link from a popular website almost directly translates into increased revenue. When Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit links to one of my posts at Cars In Depth, traffic can go up almost 1000%. That almost invariably means more Adsense revenue. Speaking of which, folks, if you like a website, click on their Adsense ads. It doesn't cost you anything and the site gets paid for every click.
  • Ryoku75 Ryoku75 on Dec 04, 2011

    I'd rather be grounded for 3-days than drive a car thats only good for sky-diving.

  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Dec 04, 2011

    @Ronnie Sorry, I will click on ads that attract my interest, but Not adsense nor any ad that pops up and fills my entire screen. Ads that are intrusive like both of those are, or the videos that autoplay. I automatically ignore and am much more likely to find some alternative. But I definitely won't be clicking on them. Sadly, we are more and more inundated with them and no matter how much I'd like to avoid them. They are here, doesn't mean I will use them or support their use.

    • Ronnie Schreiber Ronnie Schreiber on Dec 05, 2011

      Why not Adsense? I'm not thrilled about Google as a company, but Adsense is one of the few ways that web publishers, particularly small independent ones, can make money from a site. A 250x250 box in a side column or a 460x60 banner below the headline of a post is hardly intrusive. Much of the time, the Adsense ads on my site are just text ads. That's about as unintrusive as an ad can be. I share your feelings about popups and autoplays and I don't have anything like that on my site, but as a publisher, one has to be able to monetize a site. It costs site visitors nothing to click on an ad, and they're getting content for free. What other way can you show gratitude to a site that you enjoy?

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