I have been tracking Twitter much like a bird lover would affectionately monitor a prize species through their every migratory move in an effort to gain that prized sighting. So when I notice a flutter of Twitter buzz that Twitter is profitable – it perked me right up.
My first instinct when I read the tweets was to say; “Well done”. But when one reads a bit more, one is struck by the realization that their new profitability engine was because of some cash deals rather than a sustainable monetization engine where, gasp, Twitter actually sells a service to a “Judy Consumer”.
No such business maturity seems to hover anywhere near the Twitter nest. This is probably why Twitter has some serious skeptics, myself among them sometimes. “When will they grow up” I ask myself, “and create a real business with real services.”
But I see no such plans yet, nor, do any of the business analysts who should know. Sure, I see how Twitter caters to a few industries brilliantly – the media world and the PR world for instance. But I don’t see any deepening of “Judy Consumer’s” attachment to Twitter.
Instead, we hear loud twittering about how business can use Twitter to great effect or endless schemes where businesses can use Twitter to promote themselves. And all this business exploitation of Twitter carries the real risk that it will alienate its fragile consumer base which BTW has so many ghost users that its hard to get a real tally of who lives in Twit-o-ville.
Yet, I can easily imagine some consumer friendly services with just a bit of mature business thinking. For instance, I love Twitter because it has become a highly accurate, human filtered way to sift through the info saturated digital world. The list of people I follow on Twitter is a mere 24 (I have a paltry 185 group of hardy followers) and is highly structured into three rough tiers: about 1/3 are made of up huge news publishers so I hear about the big news items (e.g. CNN), then another 1/3 is made up of a group of “specialty” reporters and pundits covering categories that are important to me (e.g. Guy Kawaski). The final 1/3 are folks who amuse me or are likely to find that quirky item on the web that I would never ever find on my own. Surely, other people use Twitter the way I do and I bet there’s a paid service in there somewhere.
Maybe I am too hard on Twitter. Maybe they are thinking along these lines anyway. Or maybe Twitter wants to continue its Peter Pan life within the cocoon of the techno-rati.
Maybe.
But here’s a thought for you Twitter folks to help you on your journey of maturation. When you wake up tomorrow pretend that you have no idea about how you are going to make payroll in the next four weeks. Or for a change, forget that you have oodles of someone else’s cash in the bank and try to figure out how to convince your first 1,000 prospects to buy from you. You’d be amazed at quickly you grow up in the process.
Take a chance and join us in the grown up world – we’re ready to welcome you with open arms.
Judy Shapiro
Filed under: Business Intelligence, Corporate business models, Internet, judy shapiro, Marketing Management, profitable business model, social networks, twitter | Tagged: Judy Consumer, social media, social networks, twitter |
Trenchwars Weblog 
Good points, Judy. I wonder if the Gov tracks twitter? I bet they do. I would recommend this:
1) Every department head must have a twitter site
2) People can send twitters of suggestions, problems, blowing whistle, sending pics of waste in gov, etc.
3) The head of the dept must review Tweets and find those that concern them to follow up on, and to reply to the people of America. They can send links to more indepth answers or they can upload pdf files, etc. and educate people to what they are working with on their end and what they are doing to assuage the public’s concern.
4) This gives people an opportunity, as well as the government, to see what and why people are motivated to get on the net and make their views and concerns known.
But there are a lot of very hardworking people in Government that make very little personal contact with the public and twitter is a means to make this happen. Give twitter people and twitter a tiny percent of any idea the Government puts into practice that saves them money. Everyone will become a millionaire, probably a billionaire. The direction we are going , a trillionaire.
how’s that for “sustainable” revenue?