Twitter is quickly becoming a way of life for many businesses and folks. Anytime twitter shows a fail whale…(the symbol a person sees when trying to access Twitter and its service is unavailable) people quickly bemoan the fact that they can’t get on. 🙂 The fail whale doesn’t usually last long…I’ve only seen it a few times; briefly, when it was over capacity with Twitter users. Twitter is a mini social site that is quickly becoming a large social media site; the idea is to answer in 140 characters or less the question, ” What are you doing?”. Often, I hear other users say that they quickly become “addicted” to Twitter. The service has spawned a bunch of books on Twitter etiquette….rules or no rules use. Reasons for using Twitter is as varied as the number of people you ask…everyone has their own reasons for using it. Relationships are built online…everyone has equal access to other users…both famous and non-famous users. The latest controvery of this company which has been in business for approximately 3 years is…should they charge a fee for their services?
So far, the Twitter service is free. There is some discussion about whether businesses may be charged to use Twitter in the future. People are still discovering Twitter and all that it can do. Many people of course, use Twitter as a social networking service for their personal communication; others, are trying to find ways to use it to brand their businesses.
Twitter has been uber successful in their goals of creating a mini social networking site. At the end of 2008, Twitter rejected a bid for purchase by Facebook of $500 million. To me, that means that they view their value as well over that $500 million; and it means to me that Facebook considers it a huge competitor. Still, to stay competitive with Facebook as well as other large entities…Twitter will need to make money to stay alive and growing.
Businesses have to make money somewhere to stay in business and pay their own employees. Do they raise funds by putting advertising on their service, by charging for upgraded services for business accounts, or maybe charge a membership fee? What do you think? Do you use Twitter? What are your thoughts on this subject?
Write where you are 