

Twitter Launching Paid Business Accounts - tsestrich
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6635221/Twitter-launching-paid-business-accounts.html

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tptacek
This is a very good idea. I've already noticed small businesses messaging me
back when I mention their services and products; clearly, they're taking some
time out of their day to manage their Twitter reputation.

Given the breadth of different companies I know have been involved with
Twitter (from small local restuarants to boutique culinary appliance
manufacturers to Comcast), there must be thousands of companies who would pay
for this service, especially if Twitter can lower the barrier to entry for
them and provide metrics so that company Twitter advocates can gin up some
kind of ROI.

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dabent
It seems like Twitter is beating GetSatisfaction at its own game.

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staunch
Could probably take Yelp's business too. I know I'm much more likely to Tweet
about something than write a review on Yelp.

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tptacek
Couldn't happen to a nicer couple of companies.

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boundlessdreamz
Was this sarcastic? Honestly I have no idea about these two except that
Getsatisfaction got some bad press from 37signals etc.

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tptacek
No, it wasn't. Both companies make money by harnessing unpaid volunteers and
using their work to prey on small businesses.

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dpcan
Bingo. Access to stats and a "verified" marker would be huge for businesses.

I just hope they don't have "levels" of paid accounts based on followers for
example. A single $20-$50 per year would make sense to me. But I imagine
whichever route they choose, and no matter what cost, they'll sell anyway.

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tsestrich
I'm just thinking that for any larger company (think Fortune 500), $20-$25
would be a rounding error. I bet they'll charge their premium accounts
significantly more ($hundreds at least). Their "analytics" would have to be
pretty kick ass though for any company to take the next step and pay for the
service.

I think the key part of it is the "verified" part of the deal.

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tptacek
They could provide a single PHP+ImageMagick bar chart and if the "analytics"
shaved 15 minutes a week off some marcom person's workload, it would be worth
thousands of dollars.

#1 rule of startup pricing: CHARGE MORE.

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patio11
I totally agree with you. I think Twitter is basing the pricing decision off
avoiding blowback from charging $1,000 a month from the people who will under
no circumstances pay Twitter so much as $2 a month.

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redorb
My first thought is that pricing should based on the number of followers;

0 - 999= $9/mo 1k-10k = $29/mo 10-20k = $39/mo 21-30k = $49/mo 31k-50k =
$59/mo 51k-100k = $79/mo 100.01k-300k = $129/mo 300.01k-1mm = $259/mo

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BRadmin
"Twitter, which is valued at around $1 billion, has yet to settle on a
business model for the service..."

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trafficlight
Yes, the irony is thick.

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neovive
I'm assuming Twitter will design a way to charge large companies significantly
higher fees and less for small companies and startups.

