There is news in the air that Twitter will soon be putting a price on an account that belongs to firms. The idea came out in an interview of Biz Stone with Marketing, a British trade magazine. This doesn’t surprise anyone as the micro-blogging service had been trying to do something about generating revenue given the massive success it has amassed over time. Another reason behind it can be the advantage firms have taken, Dell’s example of generating revenue from the service being one. Stone stated in the interview:
We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts. It could also create revenue-generating features to tap into the way brands use Twitter as a hybrid marketing and customer-service tool
I understand Twitter needing to figure out how to make money, but I worry that as a small business owner who does use twitter for business purposes that this will end up hurting us while not really effecting the major marketers who can afford mainstream marketing on top of social media.
If done properly, this could work and not really change how people use Twitter – but if they begin to push out the regular people and the small businesses then it’ll lose it’s sense of “realness” and people will stop using the service because it’ll just be another online coupon dump.
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Well, duh, Twitter! About time you realized premium pricing for added value is a revenue model that could work.
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@Gregg, I think the same, Twitter just go about implementing this. Why then, I mean almost all the blogs use the service to spread news, which brings in readers, followers, subscribers, etc. It will soon start charging everyone, something that would simply kill Twitter. I guess Eric has a nice idea. But then again, that would set demarcations amongst users, killing the whole idea behind it (and its success).
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I think a tiered approach would make a lot of sense, though – we need to be pragmatic. I’d rather have a new model than no Twitter at all.
Small businesses may not need the premium services Twitter could offer major corporations willing to pay (maybe it’s tracking or other enhanced assets).
It’s either that or Twitter moves to become a non-profit, funded by grants and donations! The current model just isn’t viable.
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