Saturday, Jul 25, 2009    Text size: 

Anamitra Banerji, manager of Twitter’s commercial products, told the New York Times that Twitter 101 is a step closer to the company’s proposed paid services for businesses.

“It’s a lot easier to ask people for money if they understand how it could be useful to them without paying anything,” he said.

Twitter will probably introduce a bundle of paid services — such as account verification and traffic analysis — later this year, Banerji said.

Twitter has become a popular tool among online adult industry professionals that use the service to provide updates and announcements to customers and affiliates in real-time.

Nick, owner of online retailer DallasNovelty.com, told XBIZ he uses Twitter everyday to promote new sales and products and gains 50 unique visitors a day because of it.

“I would probably pay for the commercial account especially if it’s verified and all that jazz,” Nick said. “Some customers want to make sure you are legit and your credentials check out and one way would be through a verification.”

Fausty, chief technology officer of Baneki Privacy Computing, a software product company in Canada, said he agrees a commercial profile with a verification system would be beneficial.

“We'd be happy to use the verification feature of Twitter,” Fausty told XBIZ. “It's going to be increasingly important as the imposters and scammers show up on Twitter. I remember back in the early 1990s when the Internet was also relatively free of selfish behavior like that — but it didn't last as commercial pressures overwhelmed the old precepts of ‘netiquette.’ For that reason, verification will be critical to maintain some degree of authoritative voice in one's twitterstream.”

Twitter 101’s Case Studies reveals how companies ranging from mom-and-pop shops to major brands like JetBlue and Dell have benefited from using the service.