Twitter Rolling Out Accounts for Businesses
Once upon a time, like in July, I wrote a post to this site called “Simple Business Rules for Twitter.” Back in those halcyon days of our blog, I was a relatively novice Twitter enthusiast, but I understood the service well enough to embrace it, and to see the benefits that it had for businesses.
Now it seems like Twitter’s founders are preparing to roll out “premium” – i.e. paid -services for businesses. In an article appearing in today’s Chicago Tribune, Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s cofounders, states that the microblogging site will offer commercial accounts for businesses by the end of the year.
I am glad that Twitter is coming to the realization that their venture capital funds – even the $100 million they recently received – will not last forever. Twitter needs to develop a business model if it wants to be more than a flash-in-the-pan internet fad like the pets.com sock puppet, or be taken over by a savvier competitor. Does anyone else remember the pre-Facebook days of Friendster?
Twitter needs to find a way to offer companies premium features while keeping its core services free for all to use, and they certainly have their work cut out for them. Cited in the Tribune article is adding data and analytics that companies would be willing to pay for. Yes, all companies want to know that their social media initiatives are working, and that embracing social media actually generates ROI. The problem is that there are already services, such as Mr. Tweet, that let people see how active they are as twitterers, the percentage of replies they receive, and the percentage of people who click on links tweeted. For example, according to Mr. Tweet, @CMcGurn is categorized as an “enthusiastic” twitterer with an “above average” reply rate of 40% and an “average” number of followers, 14%, who click on links that I send.
Yes, the metrics are fairly basic, but they give a good snapshot of how engaged a particular Twitter user is with others. I am curious to see what Twitter plans to roll out for businesses that will be worth charging for, and whether or not companies will buy into it.
