Ad.ly, the online ad agency, has a huge celebrity stable that posts tweets and pulls in up to the six figures
The celebs earn a flat fee per tweet that ranges "from $1,000 to mid-five figures," says Gullov-Singh. With more than 5.6 million followers, reality TV superstar Kim Kardashian collects "in the ball park" of $10,000 per tweet, he adds, "but her price keeps going up. The most effective ones can get six figures a year, and in some cases six figures a quarter."
Twitter is testing its own advertising service, which could compete with Ad.ly for the attention of sponsors. A more direct competitor is four-year-old Izea. The Orlando company began by promoting brands on blogs and last year expanded to Twitter. It now has a network of more than 100,000 tweeters who promote products for anywhere from 10 cents to more than $2,500 per tweet, according to CEO Ted Murphy. Some celebrities or their managers negotiate directly with the sponsors and avoid using intermediaries such as Ad.ly.
Ad.ly is backed by $6 million in venture capital and was founded by 24-year-old Sean Rad, a serial entrepreneur. The company is diversifying into other social media sites. It recently began offering what it calls a celebrity bundle, in which brand promotions appear not just in celebrities' Twitter streams but also on their fan pages and in display ads on Facebook.
The bottom line: Ad.ly operates a network of more than 5,000 celebrities willing to shill for brands through their Twitter accounts.
Read more at Business Week
