Posted on September 24, 2009 by 
The business community has a real love hate relationship with Twitter.
Business users are aware that it holds the potential to really connect with current and future customers. But there are enough Twitter blunders out there (think Habitat’s use of Hashtags) for businesses to be wary of this exciting new channel. And as Twitter is such a difficult thing to measure, many businesses are not sure whether it’s really worth the time investment.
Twitter themselves are very keen to be embraced by businesses. They’ve launched their very own guide that shows businesses how to get to grips with the microblogging platform.
The other thread to this is that Twitter themselves need to start making money at some point. They’ve got around $40m from investors in the bank, but keeping a free service going that is used by up to 45m people doesn’t come cheap.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone indicated that this circle may start to be closed. He said that Twitter was developing commercial accounts that business users would have to pay for. But these commercial accounts would include premium services that would make it much more worthwhile for business.
As to what those ‘premium services’ would actually be, Stone was playing his cards close to his chest. One thing he did say is that they would include detailed analytics so premium account users could determine how and when people were interacting with their profile. Understanding these interactions could be key in determining how to best use Twitter as a communications channel.
Stone also said that they were constructing several Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) allowing third party developers integrate ‘business oriented applications’ for premium account holders. These APIs could add a ‘commercial layer’ on top of the micro-blogging platform.
Stone said “…we’ve identified a selection of things that businesses say are helping to make them more profit.”
Twitter is also expanding their “verified accounts” program, which prove to followers that the account holder is the official one for the business.
Stone wouldn’t be tied down to any official launch timeframe.
With or without these Premium accounts, Twitter already holds huge potential for almost any brand. Barracuda Digital has already helped several businesses engage with their current and future customers using this open communication channel. For advice on how to use Twitter to help your business, just get in touch.
Anyone making mention of the blog post in a Twitter message but oblivious to the conversation protocol would still have his message included in the conversation. More at my blog T.A.P. Profit Funnel