Would you pay for a Twitter membership? Would you want multiple Twitter verification badges?
Tweet like a pro.
So they say. But would you be willing to pay to “tweet like a pro”?
To all my social influencers and Twitter Power Users would you pay a membership fee for extra services? But if you are using HootSuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, SocialFlow, etc. then you basically are already paying for similar services that may be offered in a Twitter membership with a newly revised Tweetdeck.
Would buying directly through Twitter give some type of advantage? I think people see “membership” and feel either “cool exclusive group” or “why would I pay to tweet?” is what a consumer might see. However, I think using the membership word wouldn’t be the best tactic for marketing purposes in my opinion. It has a negative connotation. It would be like if Facebook had a membership. You would feel a little (or very) upset or think “oh they are trying to make money off us, aren’t they making enough?” Well, these social apps we use and love have a goal of not just making money, but growth, which is through finding ways to make even more money. It’s just business. Let’s eliminate the thought from our minds that social media platforms are strictly just something people build just for our pleasure to talk to anyone from around the world. However, I am curious if over time they would diminish the access of third party programs like HootSuite and such just to force more people down the funnel of membership. It’s quite a bit to consider.
In a statement Twitter explained:
“We regularly conduct user research to gather feedback about people’s Twitter experience and to better inform our product investment decisions, and we’re exploring several ways to make Tweetdeck even more valuable for professionals.”
What does that say to me? Nothing, other than they should have been the first to create a “HootSuite-like” system within their own platform and now they are considering having their own “in-house” type platform but they are late to the race. So again they’re going to have to do more for me to consider or even invest time into it.
Personally, for me, it would have to be way more than just real-time analytics. I would have to have a certain amount of ad credits (per month I would assume, especially if I’m paying) already included in some sort of way so if I tweet something “lit” I would select it to be pushed heavily on the platform. But besides that, I would need something special. Would that entitle a higher chance of gaining the highly coveted achievement of being verified and blessed with the blue checkmark? Would there be another check like a red check to show you are a member and serious about your tweeting? And then that would open the door for multiple badges which as I’m typing this would be kind of cool. It would give that “gotta catch them all” vibe. Now I’m not saying have 8 but maybe having four different types: verified, membership, influencer, and I was trying to think of one more because I believe in the power of four (though maybe This Is Us has instilled in me “Big 3” but I digress).
Honestly, how cool would that be though to be defined beyond the blue checkmark? I feel somebody else probably already written about this possibility but come on it would be a unique strategy allowing for more people to want to pursue certain things to get a red or green checkmark. Some people think they’ll never get one unless they are a celebrity, become a member of the “media” (TV, Newspaper, Digital Columnist for a well respected brand), or hit a certain following quota (even though they say the determination isn’t by the number of followers at all) but that’s another story. I won’t get into even though when they went public with submission form to be “verified”, I still think it have no value in their decisions process of if you are truly “Twitter worthy” but again I digress.
I’m really all over the place, and I have ventured way off the initial conversation but seriously adding those type of incentives within a “membership” plan as a Twitter Power user would bring it enough value to pay (maybe). Also, it would depend on how much I would have to pay per month. If it’s under $100 a year, I’d probably just do it just because (if anything out of curiosity). If it’s that $150 — $250 range a year, I’m like umm…. Yea I don’t know. And I always convert monthly to annually in my mind because I like to budget for the year not month to month indefinitely so I know the true value of what I’m getting versus all the ways we as marketers words our content to give the appearance of more for less (spoiler alert, brands do that to consumers daily, there’s whole science to it).
In my mind, if they tried to make an “exclusive must have” for Twitter similar to Google Analytics, then yes I would see the value, especially if it’s a lot of stuff the other third party apps or markets can’t give you or Twitter revokes access to. But GA is free, and most don’t have to pay for anything with it to get a functionality of what the typical consumer or marketer would use it for.
Twitter has been developing a new suite of tools to root out and ban members advocating violence. I think that is good start. We definitely need something to eliminate the “bot” and “troll” accounts out there in the Twitterverse because it has become the Wild Wild West dealing with them in my opinion.
So far the concept of the membership would be:
In return for a monthly fee businesses and tweetaholics would receive access to a souped-up version of Tweetdeck, offering additional functionality for the management of accounts. This would group together high-end functions such as alerts, trends and activity analysis, analytics, composition and posting tools within one intuitive dashboard. — John Glenday, The Drum
My determining factors if people would buy a Twitter membership are:
A) Price
B) Visual Value or Recognition (ex: badge, HD cover photo options, bigger profile icon, etc.)
C) Would Third Party Apps be affected?
D) Would you get more Insights? Or better safety protocols to control the “trolls” and protect your personal or company brand better.
E) Would my Colleagues use it? Peers play a big part in pushing value.
F) Go “Live” from desktop or other video / live streaming features
G) Would this Increase Impressions or other Metrics?
But that’s my points on the matter (just off the top of my head). I may expound on this later, or maybe I went too deep into it for now. Either way, I would love to get your thoughts on it.
Until next time,
T
