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Contact UsTwitter has seen the ugly tech headlines often enough to know that their business model needs some tweaking. Despite it’s pandemic popularity, Twitter has not seen a revenue stream commensurate with its apparent success. But it’s not like a wave-making startup, especially a household name like Twitter, to remain in penury for very long.
In an effort to respond to the criticism, Ron Conway spoke out and addressed these issues head-on. Conway, a Silicon Valley mogul who had an investment hand in Google, PayPal, Digg and other notable tech startups, knows what it’s like to make money. As a business angel, he’s made a lot of it.
But even a big dog like Conway, who is a deep-pocket source for Twitter, is getting the rap from other big dogs. Barry Diller expressed skepticism about Twitter’s financial future. Even Rupert Murdoch, a name synonymous with making money via media, scorned any Twitter ability to create a sizeable cash flow.
Conway says, “hold on.” He has experience in buying into companies early, and waiting sometimes years for the ultimate payoff. While critics point the finger at the inability to make money off a user base that got in for free, Conway tells us that’s how you’re supposed to do it: “You invest in something first, then you make sure there’s an audience, then you monetize. That’s how Google did it. That’s how Facebook did it and that’s exactly how Twitter’s going to do it.”
“Audience” Twitter has. Where is the “monetize?”
Conway is so glad you asked, because his point was to assure skeptics that monetization was going to come. He sketched out ten ways how. Here are some of the best ideas.
A paid customer relationship management service.
If big biz is utilizing Twitter as a marketing tool, why not buy into it as a CRM? Not a bad idea, but who, even a sophisticated business development executive, wants to turn the fun-and-friendly Twitter feed into a back-office marketing machine? As long as it’s not apparent from Twitter’s happy surface, this idea might fly.
More ads. Way More.
Facebook makes it millions by those ubiquitous ads on every page. Depending on your age and area, you see ads aplenty while merely updating your status. Why couldn’t Twitter do the same? A strategically placed ad while you tweet out your 140 characters or less would be a steady stream of millions, easily.
Buying Leads
In a different vein from the CRM idea, Conway proposed a model whereby companies could pay Twitter to get them followers on Twitter. Although the logistics of such a proposal would be enough to give anyone a nightmare, it’s still an intriguing idea. How much would a company pay to get 5,000 solid followers on Twitter?
The ideas are intriguing, and Conway hinted that he had more. We will be interested in peeking into the books a few months hence to see if Twitter will capitalize on the genius of Conway.