Regular users of Twitter will have noticed a few things happening over the course of the last few months: more users than ever, celebrities suddenly popping up by the bucket load, companies doing the same. And still Twitter does not make any money. Surely there’s a solution there somewhere?

As much as I love Twitter, I don’t think I’d pay for it. In the same way as I wouldn’t pay for Facebook, MySpace, Digg, or any of those other social media sites that are becoming ever-popular. Lucky then that Twitter seems resolute on keeping the micro-blogging service free to us individuals. The same, however, can not be said of companies.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone recently told Marketing Magazine:

“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.”

While that’s quite vague and Stone wouldn’t be drawn into revealing any more details (probably because there aren’t any), it seems clear that Twitter is looking at ways of finally monetizing the site. Focusing on the companies that are using the site would seem a good place to start.

That’s the thing, while individuals use Twitter to build relationships, keep in touch with their friends, and find people with similar interests, companies have just one thing on their minds when using the service: making money. So it would seem perfectly reasonable for Twitter to want in on that.

There is no guarantee, of course, that the companies would see it in such black and white terms. Some would undoubtedly choose to abandon the site rather than pay to use it to build their customer bases, but those such as Dell who have experienced extra sales directly as a result of Twitter activity would surely consider it good business.

So, that’s companies sorted out. Now what about those celebrities? They are, in effect, using Twitter to further their own ends after all, so should they be charged for the privilege? Maybe the ones who have thousands of followers but only follow the bare minimum should be penalized for gaming the system.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 9:34 pm under Internet, Opinion, Social Media, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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