Your tweet is its command
Todd Chaffee, a board investor for Twitter and general partner at Institutional Venture Partners, has suggested to The New York Times that the site may incorporate a means for advertisers to target customers by their desires in real-time — then send direct messages proffering discounts and special offers.
Conceptually, the microblogging service would wed e-commerce to the generous product advice that already comes from users. Mobile phone shopping may also be a development area.
For example, a user who uses Twitter to arbitrarily express his desire for a burger may be sent a message featuring a personal offer from a burger franchise, says TwitteRadar.
In the future, tweets may also be filtered by user and content. "Over time, Twitter will develop filters to help users manage and classify their tweet streams into useful categories, such as tweets from friends, family, celebrities, news organizations, charities," said Chaffee.
"As people use Twitter to get trusted recommendations from friends and followers on what to buy, e-commerce navigation and payments will certainly play a role in Twitter monetization," he added, divulging that some kind of "turnkey payment mechanism" featuring links to products and an easy way to buy them is also on the drawing board.
Numerous companies are already on Twitter to monitor customer buzz, make their online ads more engaging and manually offer discounts, promotions and tech support to followers. Users also trust Twitter friends as sources for product recommendations and movie reviews. In his view, Twitter's evolution as a one-step shopping resource is imminent.
"Commerce-based search businesses monetize extremely well, and if someone says, 'What treadmill should I buy?' you as the treadmill company want to be there," Chaffee deduced.
More than eight in 10 Twitter users, most of whom represent small businesses, expect their company's use of the popular microblogging tool to increase in the next six months, according to a survey from MarketingProfs.
The site has struggled to monetize its service as it rapidly evolves into a utility for both buzz-tracking and news-gathering; in the past, founders have been stalwart in their refusal to incorporate advertising.
