Think tank: the importance of being honest The ASA judgment said: "We noted the first four tweets in each series served as 'teasers', which, due to their nature, were likely to generate additional interest in the celebrities' postings. We also noted those tweets did not make any reference to Snickers or to Mars and were posted in relatively quick succession. In addition, we noted that the fifth 'reveal' tweets showed the celebrities with the product and included the text, 'You're not you when you're hungry @snickersUk #hungry #spon ...'. We considered the combination of those elements was sufficient to make clear the tweets were advertising. However, regardless of the ruling, Twitter users in their droves tweeted their dismay about the paid endorsements. One of Ferdinand's followers tweeted: "Do you really need the money that badly?" Another wrote: "I'm not on here to be advertised at." The last tweet says in a nutshell why, by and large, paying high-profile people to tweet about something will rarely have the desired effect among the Twittering masses. Twitter is a place for searing honesty. Celebrities with mouthpieces rarely shine. Nor do politicians trying to spin a yarn in 140 characters. This is why a new deal this week, between Ford and British start-up, PeerIndex - a company that measures people's social-media influence around particular topic areas with a scoring system - could be interesting. Ford Europe, as part of its promotion of its new B-Max model, has teamed up with PeerIndex to offer a free gift (a huge mounted cardboard hologram) to the top 1,000 influential people on Twitter and Facebook posting updates about cars, technology and design. Those who are intrigued can visit a dedicated microsite and type in their Twitter name to get their PeerIndex score out of 100. The first 1,000 who score 40 and above, will qualify for the prize. PeerIndex, and others like it, measure someone's social- media influence by tracking how other tweeters or Facebook users respond to their messages - how often their posts are retweeted or shared - to calculate "influence." Social media influence has become such an important indicator of success in some circles, that having a low Klout (a US rival to Peer Index rival) score (34) recently lost veteran brand consultant Sam Fiorella a job at a large Canadian marketing agency. Ford's "social-influence marketing campaign" is all about getting the people who are respected in car circles to talk about their experience. As opposed to Mars's Snickers campaign, people are not paid to tweet nor forced to if they accept the gift. And if they do tweet, it could be negative about the company. But it's the same ploy - just with a different spin. Azeem Azhar, PeerIndex's chief executive, says accepting Ford's gift and then feeling as if you want to talk about it on social media, is no different from accepting a free coffee taster in Selfridges and then walking about the shop holding the branded cup. The idea with these campaigns (PeerIndex has worked on similar marketing exercises with Reebok and musicians) is that people don't have to tweet about the experience/perk - but they will want to as it's enjoyable. The people we target have established their own reputation and are trusted by people to only tweet interesting and relevant posts . . . in fact, what we see is that people are very honest about disclosing where a gift or experience came from. It is this honesty that will be key to these types of campaigns working on behalf of companies and generating "social buzz" around their brands. However, Tracy De Groose, managing director of major media agency Carat, isn't convinced by these endeavours. They work more as a gauge of where a company is as a brand. Social media-influence campaigns are more about understanding your company, rather than generating sales. Social media influence marketing is just beginning. Read and learn, I say. Emma Barnett is The Telegraph's Digital Media Editor. Follow her on Twitter: @emmabarnett.