WMA: Bringing Sponsored Tweets to the Arab World
Channel: Wamda
Date: 2012-03-01

At Startup Weekend Amman a few weeks ago, Ahmad Kharbat told us about the idea he pitched, Word of Mouth Advertising (WMA). WMA, true to its name, aims to provide an advertising platform inside Twitter, allowing your friends to become freelance advertisers by posting ads directly into their own Twitter streams. 

"Social activists could tweet or post information about certain products and spread the word among their friends, sharing their experience in consuming these products", explains Kharbat. The idea also aims to allow social activists to generate money from their tweets and posts.

The idea isn't new- it's already offered by third-party advertising platforms SponsoredTweets and Ad.ly, but WMA planned to localize the idea in the Arab World. The model in general raises the question of how a user maintains social credibility while posting ads, and, if a user only posts infrequently, whether the pay is worth the trouble. But, unlike Twitter's promoted tweets, which allow ad companies to promote ordinary tweets that happen to mention their products, the WMA model generates a broader advertising base. Especially if localized in Arabic, it could have traction.