Online Flashmob Platform Mobber Suspended From Twitter API For Promoted Trends Copycat

Mobber, a platform that rewards users for distributing promoted content through their social media accounts, has been suspended from using Twitter’s API.

Mobber, which launched in June, is intended for companies and musicians who “want to BLAST something into the social media world.” A brand can start a “mob,” set a capacity and recruit fans to join all through Mobber; by joining, a user commits a tweet or status about the brand. When the mob reaches its capacity, all of the tweets and status updates are released at once, causing a social “bomb.”

“I imagine we were kicked off twitter because we may pose some threat to their promoted tweets and stream ads,” founder Billy Draper tells me. “Most of our mobs to date have been under 200, but if a heavy hitting Tweeter started a mob of 1000+, it would likely trend on a national scale.”

While it still has under 10,000 users, Mobber has done 30 mobs, the biggest of which was a 150-person mob that drove 1,050 clicks to rapper DeStorm’s iTunes album.

Draper says the last mob that got them kicked off was for a clothing company, Salute the Brave, that donates a package to an overseas soldier for every item sold.

“Hopefully we can resolve the issue with Twitter, but in the interim we will focus on Facebook and do our best to make it rain,” Draper says.

The service is really not very different from Twitter’s “Sponsored Trends,” except for the fact that Twitter doesn’t make any money off of it. While it’s definitely a double standard, you play by Twitter’s rules if you’re on its platform and there’s no way it will allow a direct competitor to their advertising dollars.

Twitter has not responded to a request for comment. I will keep you posted if they do.