Twitter Premium Hoax Really a Bad Idea?
25. Mar, 2009 
60 Comments
Have you heard about the latest Twitter Hoax?
Apparently some jokesters convinced many in the Twitter community (including one well-known internet marketer who will go unnamed) that Twitter would soon introduce PAID premium accounts.
The accounts would range from $5 – $250 a month, and would include features such as:
- Higher character limit
- Free “random followers”
- Listing on the “Recommended People To Follow” list
- Celebrity followers…
…and more!
The hoax was “outed” almost immediately and everyone had a good laugh about it.
But it got me thinking…is this really such a bad idea?
I mean, obviously some of the premium features bordered on the ridiculous, but is it really such a bad idea for a Social Media property to offer a paid continuity option for premium/business users?
By most estimates, Twitter has over 1 MILLION users and is growing at an insane rate. And for a company that still doesn’t have a viable business model, this hoax idea seems as good as any.
Imagine if Twitter had a $4.95 a month Premium account that had additional features such as:
- Higher character limit (maybe 200 instead of 140)
- Ability to “highlight” your tweets (i.e. change the background color)
- Directory/category listing (of course, this would require them to first create categories)
I can guarantee you I’d buy it!
And I’m probably not alone. And with over 1 MILLION users (and counting), that $4.95 a month would add up pretty quickly.
I realize any mention of profits or capitalism is heresy to the Social Media community, but eventually all these free services will need some sort of sustainable business model or they’ll all fold up and die.
I for one say “Bring On Twitter Premium!”
What do you think? Please let me know by commenting below.
Howdy. pleasant job. I really would definitely not foresee this excellent website on a sun.
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It costs several million dollars in salaries and expenses to run a place like Twitter. I am all for them earning a few extra billion dollars because it wouldn’t come out of my hide, or not all of it would come out of my hide.
They are giving us something that is valuable, and they deserve to earn a profit, if we decide to pay them for their service.
If I would decide to stay free, I would stay free… If I would decide to upgrade, I would upgrade… why should anybody else complain if I (or somebody else) would decide to pay? I think I would not upgrade (if the upgrade existed… which it doesn’t, yet…) but I might if I would want to.
- Ellis2ca (The Incredible Dirty Old Man Who Does Not Grow Older…)
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So all this Twitter stuff is real interesting – but I have a question, why is it that no mater where I click on the “Claim Your FREE Copy of Twitter List-Building by Clicking Here” links on you page at http://www.bluebirdlistbuilding.com/ I get taken to a shopping cart that asks me to pay $97.
Maybe I have a different definition of “free”.
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This is very typical of the internet marketing community to be so positive about wanting to monetize something as successful Twitter or Facebook by charging a fee.
There is no way that these sites would be as successful as they are if they charged a fee. It seems its always a typical internet marketers response to want to charge for everything. It really goes to show how uneducated and one dimensional when it comes to business a lot of you are.
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Hey Ryan,
Thanks for sharing this story today at the SuperConference. You kicked ass up on stage and loved every minute.
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I agree that would be a good idea, despite that it was originally just a hoax. Twitter is such a big thing for advertisers today, it would be very beneficial.
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I am 100% in agreement. I’m sure it would make a lot of Twitter faithfuls a bit more comfortable knowing their favorite past-time is financially stable.
One feature I would add to the Premium is the ability to embed an image (no bigger than a profile image)!
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Interesting idea. The million (billion) dollar question: “How do you best monetize Twitter?”
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I would pay that premium for sure. I would think there is definitely ways to monetize twitter.
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