Joe Anderson raised an interesting question recently about whether someone could Twitter for a living.
Before dismissing the idea of someone having a career that involves 140-character messages, it wasn’t that long ago that many people brushed off the idea that anyone could blog for a living.
So how could someone make enough money from Twitter to pay the bills?
The low-hanging fruit would be advertising on their Twitter backgrounds from services such as TwittAd, which suggests people with lots of followers can make some easy cash. Of course, a growing number of people are using third-party clients such as TweetDeck and Thwirl so putting advertising on your Twitter background could lose its appeal.
Another option is letting a third-party such Be-A-Magpie send Tweets using your name. It’s sort of like pay-per-post that was all the rage within the blogging community before fading away. The general reaction to Be-A-Magpie is anyone who actually used it would be un-followed by a lot of people.
A third way to make money from Twitter is posting messages about things other people can purchase (e.g. books, music, electronics) that would let someone make affiliate income.
Right now, I think making a living from Twitter is probably impossible. That’s not to suggest it won’t be possible in the future but there just doesn’t seem be lucrative enough tools right now.
Technorati Tags: advertising, twitter
6 Comments
I'm guessing that you might be able to contract with companies to tweet on their behalf – to manage a social networking strategy for them, but Twitter would really only be part of the package.
You can if you twitter for a company. Twitter, grow your follower base, use your broad Twitter appeal as a proof point on your resume, get hired as a company's social media guru. You are your own personal Twitter start-up.
The more popular services like magpie and twittad become, the less followers the people who use them will have. I have been unfollowing every person who I discover to be using one of these services, and I have been encouraging others to do the same. Paid advertising tweets that are sent through without any way to identify them as advertising are unethical, and devalue reviews or recommendations which come through Twitter, as you never know if it is spam or a genuine recommendation
I understand that Twitter, Inc. will need to eventually generate a revenue stream to support operations, and if that means Twitter will be sending paid advertising through the service, while I will be unhappy about it, at least it will be keeping the service live. But services like magpie and twittad are basically hijacking Twitter, Inc.'s bandwidth and delivery system to inject advertising into a social media network, an activity I find to be highly questionable.
I would love to see Twitter, Inc. ban the use of such services, as they effect the quality of the Twitter experience. For myself, if I wanted excessive and spammy advertising, I would be on MySpace.
In my opinion, you Twitter for one of the following reasons:
* Better Communicate With An Established Audience (clients, members, etc.)
* Networking
* Industry Intelligence
* Lead Generation / Branding
* Obtain Or Share Knowledge
* Fun / Socializing
Some of these provide the ability to indirectly generate revenue in the future – but none of these provide the ability to directly generate revenue today. Always has been, always will be.
Regards,
George
Agree. There are many ways to get "paid" by Twitter even if none of them involves money. In many ways, like blogging in terms of brand building, fun, etc.
How well do you know how to utilize sponsorship?
I have yet to see it happen, but I am convinced if someone had enough followers (at least 10k) and from the start they said they promote company X but will offer independent (re: critical) reviews as well as promotional items, I think it can be a successful proposition.
The trick? Be transparent from the start and keep your independence.