“Clout mining” is the new way brands are using viral tweets to sell their products. Lately, when random users on Twitter who don’t have massive followings create viral tweets, they’ve been spotted promoting products like face masks, pillows, and TikTok lights in their feeds. The practice is called “clout mining,” where companies reach out to users going viral and pay them to share links to their products in exchange for some money. The viral Twitter user capitalizes off their brief moment of fame, and the brand gets the eyes of all those coming to the feed. According to one OceanGalaxyLight employee, they used to hunt for viral tweets to embed links under—and now, Twitter users come to them. A single link usually results in three or four orders, and last summer, they reported making around $7,000 to $8,000 from Twitter alone. (Vox, Seattle Times)
