Twitter to charge search agencies and other brands

Image by niallkennedy via Flickr

Marketing Magazine has the story of Twitter charging brands for accounts.

Looks like Fiona Ramsay, journalist, has done well here. First we've got the Biz Stone quote.

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.

Then the magazine tweeted to see whether brands would be happy to pay. They wouldn't - not even Dell who suggested they'd go elsewhere. The most positive was LoveFilm who (my summary) said it would depend.

Here's another fair use chunk of the story;

Robin Grant, managing director of social media agency We Are Social, said Twitter could charge for display ads or to access customer information for marketing.

I think I've done this myself - trying to express one thing to a journalist but winding up saying something else.

We Are Social do very well out of the Marketing Magazine story as their twitter profile features as the main picture. However, I really doubt Twitter will go the banner route and they're certainly not going to start selling personal data!

How do you think Twitter should or will go about making money?