CheezeDMG Blog

The web has erupted this morning with news that Twitter might charge brands for being on (er) Twitter. The article, published exclusively by Brand Republic (and echoed at Tech Crunch) includes a hint from Biz Stone (co founder of Twitter) that they may charge brands for being on Twitter.

The comment was reportedly thus:

We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following
them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable
and charge for commercial accounts.

So, no details yet as to how and how much. One has to remember that to date Twitter has not published a business plan or publicly shared its plans for revenue generation, so any snippet like this will be rightly analysed and amplified as the day progresses.

Don’t Panic!

For those brands that are on Twitter, and for those considering ‘jumping in’ there is no need to fear. There will still be a lot of work to be done before the rules and the costs can be fixed and I would suggest this needs to include a substantial amount of consultation to get the balance of inclusion and income just right.

A big debate will be ‘what defines a brand’ - we have brands on Twitter from Fake Bake to Dell, Ford & Chrysler. We also have celebrities who are in themselves brands (@wossy , @johncleese) and we have ‘web celebs’ like Kevin Rose, Leo Laporte and Robert Scoble who indirectly will be using Twitter as a business channel, not to mention agencies like Cheeze who are using Twitter as a method of being in the conversation to drive the conversation.

So, don’t worry just yet. This is important news, but nothing has changed. We wil be watching the story to ensure we keep you up to date with progress and any changes that happen. You can follow us on twitter or grab the blog RSS feed.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Should Twitter Verify Celebrity Accounts? (mashable.com)
• Selling Ads on Your Twitter Background? You’ll Love Magpie (readwriteweb.com)
• Twitter To Start Charging Companies For Having An Account? (techcrunch.com)
• Will Twitter integrate Search this week? (thenextweb.com)