Is Twitter, as a business, actually profitable? How would you make it profitable?

34 replies
In doing some research I just came across this article:

Could Twitter be closing in on a profitable business model? - Editors Weblog

I was surprised to discover that Twitter, as a business itself, is (allegedly by this website) not profitable. A bit of further search revealed several other sources citing the same thing. Could be wrong though... If anybody knows different, please correct me.

Anyway, it just strikes me as extremely ironic that so many marketers (though admittedly, I am not one of these marketers yet) are getting awesome returns on their Twitter lists while Twitter itself is not.

From the article:

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Twitter founder and CEO Evan Williams interestingly revealed that the company is considering a future feature which allows Twitter users to follow events in their local areas.
As one technique that *could* get the social networking site to turn a profit in the future. I have also read about Twitter coming out with paid accounts for corporate identities.

So, Warriors: If you were in charge of Twitter. How would you make it be a profitable business? Affiliate links? Paid Twitter accounts? Micropayments for extra features? Start an onboard PPC like a search engine?

Or is this something that's totally out of the IM sphere that needs to be approached with a different mentality altogether? (I really doubt this though).
#business #make #profitable #twitter
  • Profile picture of the author DwayneCoaching
    I really like Twitter how it is Free Social Networking site where you can network with the masses with one post. But to answer the question I would give option of a paid account with many benefits. Some of the benefits would include advertisement on twitter and maybe something like you can add videos to your profile.
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  • Profile picture of the author Droopy Dawg
    I can see Google or Yahoo buying them, and placing ads on it. Its probably worth a billion dollars by now, so the guys that created it will get PAID one day.
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  • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
    Hm yeah, I guess as interesting as it would be to come out with some out-of-the-box innovative way to do it what will probably happen is they will either go paid, plaster ads all over themselves or be bought out and have the buyer's ads plastered all over them.

    This article I linked to seems to hint that they're trying to go in other ways though, to make money without actually losing the 'clean' image that they have now, which is what intrigued me. But yeah, doubtful.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bujuk
      Originally Posted by hmbehrens View Post

      Hm yeah, I guess as interesting as it would be to come out with some out-of-the-box innovative way to do it what will probably happen is they will either go paid, plaster ads all over themselves or be bought out and have the buyer's ads plastered all over them.

      This article I linked to seems to hint that they're trying to go in other ways though, to make money without actually losing the 'clean' image that they have now, which is what intrigued me. But yeah, doubtful.
      I'm sure it can be done. just follow google approach. they place ads and all but the method they use is so effective. not many users feel present of the ads. their pages still look clean and fast to load.

      I'm sure twitter founder can follow something similar.
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  • Profile picture of the author summerm
    why are you surprised twitter isn't profitable? twitter's never asked me for a dime, anyway, nor showed me anything anyone else has paid for, as far as I can tell... i would be surprised if they had any revenue at all. maybe if you are certified spam&sale free, you can have as many followers as you want, but otherwise you have to pay up. doubt they'll go in that direction, instead they probably want to reduce spam and extract the bucks from normal folks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
      Originally Posted by summerm View Post

      why are you surprised twitter isn't profitable? twitter's never asked me for a dime, anyway, nor showed me anything anyone else has paid for, as far as I can tell...
      I don't know Summerm, I guess I never really thought about it... just assumed that since small simple affiliate website can be made to be profitable so easily with a few readers, then a website that has THAT many readers practically HAS to be profitable whether they want to or not! But you're right, absolutely no reason why they would be. I guess that's a business lesson for me

      Still would be nice to hear peoples' out-of-the-box ideas on how to monetize Twitter without resorting to ads... although I guess the people who do have those ideas aren't exactly falling over themselves to just give 'em away.

      The local events idea I think is pretty good, actually, btw.
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      • Profile picture of the author summerm
        Originally Posted by hmbehrens View Post

        I don't know Summerm, I guess I never really thought about it... just assumed that since small simple affiliate website can be made to be profitable so easily with a few readers, then a website that has THAT many readers practically HAS to be profitable whether they want to or not!
        a lot of these big social networking sites focused on growing big fast, at the expense of anything else. then once they are huge, they decide to hit the question of a revenue model... and then people make fun of them for it. there's lots written on this all over the internet, lots of analysis by smart people, if you are curious.

        big business is a strange beast... you know there could be a major product you use that just drains money for a company, just because it is strategic...
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  • Profile picture of the author tomcam
    Don't be surprised they're losing money. Note that MySpace, with its massive number of (surprisingly untargeted) ads, has laid off 30% of its employees. Twitter is acknowledged by its CEO to be losing money, though he claims to have a special sauce in the making that will reverse the hemorrhaging.

    Twitter will probably charge corporate customers for mission-critical services, like notifying users of outages or urgent product updates. The web page of course has a Google-like potential of laser-targeted ads, and if they were very clever they could analyze the history to improve targeting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Young Jedi
    monitize twitter by staying abreast of what your competitors are doing so you can turn your competitors into your resellers... its about synergies and messaging..
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  • Profile picture of the author zen_affiliate
    That Twitter generates no profit isn't news. Google took awhile to generate one, as I recall. GooTube still generates no profits
    "CreditSuisse analyst Spencer Wang, reported earlier this month that he expects YouTube to incur a $470 million loss in 2009 alone.
    Financially, YouTube has been a loser."

    Myspace is laying something like 30%+ of it's staff.

    Of course one can make money from these networks and their owners may find a monetization strategy for the sites yet. Twitter & YouTube have already shown value beyond mere money, though(and I heard a few of you gasp at my heresy).
    The communiques & video escaping the Iranian censors, post-election, prove their worth.

    I'm using all of these venues to extend services for clients and as a value-added proposition in relation to my services and those of my clients.

    When obtaining a new hammer, the carpenter doesn't wonder if he can make money from the hammer by selling pictures of it or selling ad space on it. The carpenter makes money from the tool by using it for it's intended purpose, in service of his customers.

    And, yes, I believe I read somewhere that ads are coming to Twitter.
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  • Profile picture of the author tester.23
    Banned
    Surely just a few well placed banner ads on everyones screen would generate a large amount of revenue due to the user base they now have.
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  • Profile picture of the author melanied
    When twitter *does* decide to start monetizing, they will be able to pull in some SERIOUS dough
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  • Profile picture of the author successtony
    I did a test on twitter and it was really interesting.I have app 1200 followers and i thought id test the usefulness of twitter.I sent out 4 tweets 1 hr apart just asking people to tweet back if they read the post.I waited and waited .After 2 days i had a total of 2 replies.Great marketing site when nobody bothers to read anyone elses tweets.
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  • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
    With all the value twitter is giving, it's so easy to monitize. I think the problem is not how to monitize such a valuable site but what is the best option.

    Twitter has surpassed everything that's out there already..

    If Googs not careful it may even find itself sidetracked by Twitter in terms of "Trends" search.

    Right now if you want to find the best/most recently updated blogs or product infomation all you have to do is search twitter..It's takes several days for Goog to index blogs whereas with twitter..informing people that your blog is updated is just a tweet away..

    Lastly, If I were an owner of a big corporation that uses twitter for news and updates, all Twitter has to do is to ask and I'll be happy to sponsor them..

    oMar
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  • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
    the value is the client base. If they continue to build a strong twitter addiction then they can sell to anyone who needs those clients.
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  • Profile picture of the author Liquidgraph
    twitter is a very valuable online tool, it is great in marketing, finding resources, and publicizing.
    Twitter could help you gain very high number of targeted visitors to your website, by gaining good targeted followers. It can help any business rise immensely, and gain unbelievable traffic, which could lead to very high number of conversions.
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  • Profile picture of the author GarryMSayer
    If I was given the job of making money for twitter I would start by writing a book on how to setup an eye-catching account and get the most from your twitter experience, the only difference from all the other books out there would be the book I write would be the officially endorsed twitter book.

    I would probably make it a physical product sell it for around $10 and maybe but not definitely for a limited time only offer a .pdf version for around $8. I would advertise that 10% from the sale of each unit would go to a globally recognised charity.

    I've gotta go now and draft an email to the twitter CEO - wish me luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt.Lake
    What about the obvious one? Twitter has so much space on the site for advertising yet it's blank. From Twitter's point of view, they could make a TON of money by selling advertisng space. Heck, just put some adsense on there and it will run into millions a year.

    At the end of the day though, let's not forget... Twitter is a fad.

    A lot of the time, it's just GEEKS that create these things and they don't know about marketing... so they don't always build it will the purpose of making money from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicholas William
    I've been thinking alot about twitter lately, and I've come to think that it's one of those black holes phenomenons in the internet industry. They have a HUGE subscriber base, they get mainstream media exposure, it's basically a household name... yet it doesnt turn a profit. If you can get your head around this equation, then you'll save yourself alot of time, heartache and money in future with your own projects.

    Don't confuse popularity with income potential! Just because everyone wants "it", doesnt mean you can charge them for the "it".

    I've had ideas in the past, that produced crazy amounts of impressions, that I was convinced would convert in ridiculous numbers... only to find out that it was something that people wanted to look at but not pay for.

    Sure there are ways to create revenue on twitter, and it's a good way to spread your message, but my point for this post is simply "all that twitters is not gold"
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    • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
      Originally Posted by GarryMSayer View Post

      I would probably make it a physical product sell it for around $10 and maybe but not definitely for a limited time only offer a .pdf version for around $8. I would advertise that 10% from the sale of each unit would go to a globally recognised charity.
      I think that's actually an awesome idea. Give the service for free, then sell information, training and coaching on how to use the service most effectively. Good business plan... think of all the people making money off of "How to do Adwords" stuff (or indeed, "How to do Twitter" stuff) that's already out there.

      Originally Posted by rapidscc View Post

      Right now if you want to find the best/most recently updated blogs or product infomation all you have to do is search twitter..It's takes several days for Goog to index blogs whereas with twitter..informing people that your blog is updated is just a tweet away..
      You know I've never started doing this yet... but yeah Twitter might just be an awesome research tool as well as a marketing tool. I'll have to try that and see what's up.

      Originally Posted by Nicholas William View Post

      [...] but my point for this post is simply "all that twitters is not gold"
      Ha! Nice one.

      Originally Posted by p0opinpants View Post

      Harry, are you in any way related to the famous Peter Behrens, architectural and graphic designer of AEG corporation and design teacher for many Bauhaus associates in the early 1900s?
      Hmm, well I do know the Behrens family is spread out far and wide... I didn't know of this particular Behrens though, but I'll definitely find out now
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      • Profile picture of the author gianne2705
        I've read some marketers talk about that social site as a way to generate traffics on their site through their followers.I guess there are more things to discover and learn to make it successful.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicholas William
    ps. I dont think you can simply follow the google ads business model. Dig deeper people, and realise that this is SOCIAL media we are talking about. Google covers every niche on earth, twitter's audience go there for the purpose of social networking so they are in a certain frame of mind.

    ... a quick analogy would be if you were walking down to the park to meet a friend and chat about your lives would you buy a car simply because a salesman walked past and shouted "WHO ELSE WANTS A GREAT PRICE ON A BMW, LIMITED TIME ONLY SO ACT FAST"

    it's pretty much guaranteed that you would either give him a strange look for being out of place or simply ignore the message and go back to chatting with your friend
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    Words can't explain how excited I am with facebook advertising... I promise to share more in the new year! www.enicholas.com
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  • Profile picture of the author TheFlash
    Twitter is a SPAMMING tool. Twitter users are 98% spammers and 2% timewasters
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    • Profile picture of the author Drover
      Originally Posted by TheFlash View Post

      Twitter is a SPAMMING tool. Twitter users are 98% spammers and 2% timewasters
      Dude, you keep posting this over and over. All your posts are pretty much the same. This sucks. That sucks. Everyone is lying to me or cheating me. You might have to actually do some work and try a few things to get them to work.

      I've only been on Twitter a short time and it's VERY profitable if you take some time and test some things. I have some accounts that are spam accounts, but honestly, they're less profitable right now than the things I'm doing that are much more whitehat on Twitter.
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  • Profile picture of the author nebraska
    Start charging $10 a year to use it in some advanced fashion, but leave a basic free means to use it, sign up, try it out etc.. Most would pay the modest fee to be able to use more advanced features.
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  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    Twitter could learn a lot from my business model. At least the model I use for twitter . I have started providing a service that build a twitter following for people that either does not have the time to do it , is intimidated by the process , or for whatever reason they choose not to do it themselves .

    Twitter could do this in example . Offer a pre-made profile that already has 2000+ followers targeted to a specific niche . They could offer special incentives to the tweets that agreed to follow on their behalf .

    Once you reach 2000 followers the quality you offer your followers dictates how many new followers you receive . I get well over 100 new followers a day on the days that I am active . I will average around 25 a day if I choose not to engage on a particular day .

    I have not actively followed anyone who did not follow me first since I reached 2500 followers . I am now hovering around 9,000 follower. If I implemented the same tactics I do for my clients I could easily have 20,000. I am doing so many sites for others that I don't spend a lot of time on mine LOL I do run multiple accounts ranging from 500 to 5000 followers .

    I give you the above information to back up some of the following stats

    I track every tweet that I send with a link in it . The number of followers you have may not directly dictate the response you will receive .

    Now I at first thought this was just a numbers game . I could not have been more wrong .

    Admittedly the 500 to 1000 member accounts do not get a lot of response . If it was a pure numbers game the 9000 follower account should always win. It doesn't

    The amount of activity for the account (over 2000 followers) has a lot to do with the response you get . The account I am actively working on that day usually is the most receptive . If I send out a cold tweet on my 9000 account it gets an average of 15 clicks . If I have been engaged with other tweeters and slip in a link about every 7th tweet it gets from 40 to 75 clicks . You would expect my 5000 follower account to do about 60% of the 9000 account . A cold tweet does get about 8 clicks . If I have been engaging and sending a link every 7th tweet I am still getting 30 to 60 clicks .

    I know I kind of got off topic on this one and I apologize to the op. I just wanted to let people know that if you are not getting the results you desire with twitter it could be because you are not using it for it;s intended purpose .. A social network first and a marketers dream second
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    • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
      Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips View Post

      Twitter could learn a lot from my business model. At least the model I use for twitter . I have started providing a service that build a twitter following for people that either does not have the time to do it , is intimidated by the process , or for whatever reason they choose not to do it themselves .
      Nice. Probably would get some questions of privacy issues or get people ticked off if Twitter actually advertised that they would build your list for you though... But I think if they did it juuuussst right and handled the PR very well then they could manage to pull it off.

      Goes to show the avenues that a single independent marketer has open to them, that a big 'corporation' type thing does not. I think affiliate products would also fall into this... you and I can certainly recommend a product, but for Twitter to do it, it would be a little weird.
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      • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
        Originally Posted by hmbehrens View Post

        Nice. Probably would get some questions of privacy issues or get people ticked off if Twitter actually advertised that they would build your list for you though... But I think if they did it juuuussst right and handled the PR very well then they could manage to pull it off.

        Goes to show the avenues that a single independent marketer has open to them, that a big 'corporation' type thing does not. I think affiliate products would also fall into this... you and I can certainly recommend a product, but for Twitter to do it, it would be a little weird.

        That is why I say twitter would need to offer incentive to people who agree to follow their clients back. i follow everyone anyway but would defiantly follow if twitter gave me the privilege of being on a suggested follower list for my efforts .
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  • Profile picture of the author Drover
    I don't think it would take much for Twitter to be profitable. What are their costs? Mostly just servers I imagine.
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  • Profile picture of the author jkmg
    My personal experience shows that Twitter is not a very responsive "list". I agree with the idea that most users are spammers and have little concern for other people's tweets. I have almost 10k followers and can't get more than 40 clicks on any kind of tweet (promo, news article, etc).

    It's termed a "social media" site, but it's far from it. I think one of the biggest problems with monetizing it (not from the site's perspective, but from the user's perspective) is that any given tweet is viewable for literally a few seconds and then gets lost in the multitude of tweets that immediately follow. No matter how large your follower list is, they still need to be on Twitter reading tweets when you post yours. this was probably the single biggest reason everyone spams (so the tweet gets seen).

    Their checks and balances for spam are slightly askew as well. I had a one year old account with about 2000 followers that I NEVER spammed anything on. One day I tweeted a harmless little affiliate link and got a response from a person with a new account (9 followers) who told me to "stop sending annoying spam, I have reported you". Guess what happened? That account was suspended within 30 minutes and I had to make the equivalent of closing arguments in a high profile homicide trial to get it un-suspended (if that's a word).

    I guess it's like everything else out there...if the stars and planets are aligned just right at a given moment in time, you could profit from it.

    I know that if Twitter themselves monetize the site with ads, banners, etc, it is unlikely I will ever click on any of them! lol
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    • Profile picture of the author Drover
      Originally Posted by jkmg View Post

      I know that if Twitter themselves monetize the site with ads, banners, etc, it is unlikely I will ever click on any of them! lol
      I wouldn't either. I'd also never click on a Myspace ad or Facebook ad. But that doesn't mean there aren't people who do...obviously. Heck, if there weren't people who will click crap that I won't, I'd be broke!
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  • Profile picture of the author AtomicFlipper
    I suspect they will make money providing people with a verified account tag as stated on their blog.

    It's in beta at the moment and only available to high profile and gov people.

    People who have been sitting on names better sell real fast or lose them.
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