Must Read: Interview with CEO/Founder of Naughty Tweet LLC
If I ask you: What is the common ground among political science, theology, high tech, seminary, fortune 50 and adult business, what would you answer? … Ok, try again: who would it remind you of? Still unclear? Then read on.
Two days ago I came across an article on AVN mentioning NaughtyTweet.com, curious, I managed to track down Peter Housley, CEO/Founder of Naughty Tweet, LLC (yes, it’s a stand alone company with “Naughty” and “tweet” in its name!). It turns out, there is nothing “racy” about Peter, who is in a devoted relationship, has years of experiences working for Fortune 50 company, studied theology, even practiced 2 years in a seminary, and of course, runs an Adult business, yes, using Twitter as a tool.
Not only Peter is perfectly mainstream, as far as I understand, he is much of noble man himself, looking beyond quick money, standing up strong against (much like I do) what I called “twitter follower chasing” money tide, be true to himself and twitter eco system. When asked “if there is one thing that is key to the success, what is it”, he simply put it this way –
it’s the big mistake people make entering this business thinking they can create an account, get some followers or add some friends and then start spamming them with links and advertising – it just doesn’t work that way
Read on to learn his take on “twitter advantage” and what mainstream businesses can learn from adult business about using twitter like a master.
Like Jack Dorsey once said and continue saying:
Twitter is NOT a microblogging, twitter is about “story telling”, “real time information sharing”…twitter is a utility, like electricity.
Now it’s time to turn it on, tune in, let mother “twitter” serve you.
(Following is the full text of my interview with CEO, Founder of Naughty Tweet, LLC, Peter Housley.
1. What is naughtytweets and series other websites and how are they different from millions other adult websites?
We believe that sites in the Naughty Tweet network help to bridge the gap between mainstream and adult entertainment. As we were building PornStarTweet.com, the first in the series, we were intrigued at how normal the daily life of a PornStar can be, with the obvious exceptions. None of our sites are “Adult Websites” in the general sense of the term, we’re not selling anything, not posting any content – we’re merely a conduit of information on the daily lives of your favorite porn stars.2. How did you come up with the idea and how is your professional background serving up this venture?
Porn Star Tweet was conceptualized by Kristen Barreiro, who also happens to be my girlfriend, she came to me numerous times over the past year and a half showing me this tool called “Twitter”. Kristen is a social media marketing guru, having developed and managed numerous Social Media Marketing efforts for some of Las Vegas’ biggest nightclubs and shows. Together we were paying close attention to the celebrity mania on Twitter with Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore; Kristen suggested that we might figure out some way to put it together with the adult industry and highlight Porn Stars instead of Celebrities — from that conversation came PornStarTweet.com.I have a very corporate background having spent 15+ years as a project manager in the software and business consulting world for Fortune 50 companies around the world. Hold a bachelors in Political Science with a minor in Theology and attended almost two years of seminary. The entrepreneurial spirit flows through me and has offered many interesting adventures over the years. Together with Kristen Barreiro we have developed a tool from a simple concept.
3. Is this a full blown, standalone startups, or subsidiary of an existing company?
Originally we did not expect to have the attention on this project that it has and was built to integrate with another network of site we own called The Free Adult Network (thefreeadult.com), which is essentially a free gallery site with 200,000 adult galleries and websites featured. We have since split off these sites and formed Naughty Tweet LLC as a standalone company.4. How long did it take you to go from idea to actual launched site?
Interestingly we went from concept to first implementation in exactly 14 days. Which turned out to be a good thing as we have become aware there were others attempting to develop similar products at the same time. Many of which now defer to us as the defacto standard. Twitter API is straightforward, doesn’t require jumping through hoops to get data and just works; which makes development in that world easy and fast.5. How’s user adoption rate since launching, who are the users of the site?
75-80% of our user base are consumers, another 10% are industry professionals and the remainder the stars themselves. The response to the sites has been overwhelming but from consumers but more surprisingly from the stars themselves. We made our first public showing at AdultCon 16 in March and asked if anyone was interested in showing up with us to this convention, we have responses from some of the biggest stars in the industry. It’s also worth talking about that the first version of the site monitored 17 Porn Stars, roughly 70 days later we monitor 312 — that’s just Porn Stars on Twitter. Overall we monitor approximately 650 profiles and on average 5,000+ tweets daily, and have about 10,000 followers on Twitter itself as well as 1000′s more who do not particiapte on Twitter but visit the website or one of our other social network sites directly.6. Are you profitable? What is the business model?
The development costs and operations costs of the network are minimal, most of our cost is in managing data, monitoring data and continuing to spread the word. At this time we are primarily advertising driven on the websites, but with some uniqueness because of the capabilities of Twitter we’re not just selling traditional banner ads, but interaction with our followers.The big news for us recently is out co-producing a spoof style adult movie with Immoral Productions, which has been all over the news both mainstream and adult media. Honestly the stories are too juicy in the Twitter world to pass up poking fun at; and they lend themselves to some great porn style story lines. We partnered with long time friend Dan Leal and Award Winning Director Jim Powers from Immoral Productions. It was a way to extend the brand while staying true to our nature and interesting to our consumer base. Again the response from the stars was amazing and we’ve got some big, big names in the first movie and more waiting in the wings for a sequel.
7. If there is one thing that is key to the success of naughtytweets venture, what is it?
The entire network truly owes it’s success to Kristen’s knowledge of how people interact with Twitter and Social Networks in general. There is a true shift in the way marketing and advertising functions in that world and if you try and approach MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or the host of other sites with a “traditional” mentality it simply will not work. Our network of sites work mostly because we take the time to interact with the stars as well as the consumers – it’s the big mistake people make entering this business thinking they can create an account, get some followers or add some friends and then start spamming them with links and advertising – it just doesn’t work that way. We recently held the first ever PornStar TweetUp, hundreds of people attended – but the key is that we’re REAL, we’re interacting with our followers both on Twitter and in person – it’s Social Networking 101!8. From your experiences and business perspectives, what are the advantages of twitter that are unique to businesses, which are not seen before?
Twitter is really a tool, frankly from a native user interaction standpoint it’s a terrible tool; although they are trying to work on their interfaces. Their weak interface has honestly been the business model by which many of us have developed these Twitter based tools. Tools like Tweetie, Splitweet, Monitter, Seesmic Desktop and a host of others wouldn’t need to exist otherwise. Intentional or not it’s part of the success of Twitter. The media is also baffled by Twitter and reports statistics from an past perspective. Twitter is not for everyone, but when it does click in users heads it really clicks and they become addicted. Twitter also allows people to deal with things more real time and in bite sizes. Gone are the days of 4 page forum posts that you had to read though — if you can’t say it in 140 characters, too bad.9. Any words of wisdom (from you) to mainstream businesses?
Do people still say, “think outside the box”? The “adult industry” has bled the edge of technology for as long as technology has existed. When I was a child in the 70′s I remember my father having a dot matrix printed nudie lady on the wall of his office made of X’s and O’s — from that world we get the home video revolution, digital photography, the internet, streaming media and more. I’m not saying we owe the world to the sex industry, nor am I saying we should use every tool to make something sexual. We’ve been very careful in our development of PornStarTweet and the other network sites to stay true to the nature and community of Twitter. My advise to the mainstream as well as adult is to pay attention to consumers, listen to their needs and wants, provide them with customer service beyond reproach. Social networking is well Social, if you miss that point then don’t bother.10. Future plans, Technology, business, partnership, or products?
We continue to find new genres of interest for our network, we will be launching shortly two more niche sites more narrowly focused on the BBW and Gay porn stars on Twitter. We are very close to implementation of some other social network interactivity to provide a broader look at the daily lives of these stars.We’re also developing under a different company a mainstream project using all the tools and code we’ve developed and conceived for this network. It will expand and grow in a very different direction, but will lean on everything we’ve learned here.
We are a core sponsor of Erotica LA (erotica-la.com), a large consumer show being held in June, at which we will live tweet from the Fans of Adult Media Entertainment Awards (thefameawards.com) on a new “real time” tweet and picture interface we have developed.
11. Any dating advices for fellow twingles? (single people on twitter, I am not single but it would be interesting to see your reply)
Not sure that question is posed to me, but my advise in that world is have a social network in your whole life — meaning don’t spend every waking moment tweeting into your computer or iPhone — chirp it up in person! Attend a TweetUp or better yet a PornStarTweetUp!Thank you again for the opportunity.
