Not by Twitter, by app developers. That should come as no surprise with Twitter’s open API, it has been 3rd party developers who have latched on to the platform to provide innovation to the community in lightening fashion. Yesterday 83 Degrees, a software firm, launched Super Chirp “a system to enable the simplest form of paid content. It makes use of Twitter’s social connections and distribution channels”. In a nutshell it allows people to charge followers for premium content.
I personally have yet to meet a tweep whose content I’d be willing to pay for (not to say that I do not value and love the content of those I follow – I do). There is so much good content out there it’s hard to keep up and filter the noise. And, in this space so much of what you get and what you give has value that is not $$. While I’m not sold on paid content (yet anyways) I do see opportunity to provide Twitter users with transactional capabilities. Just the other day a business owner asked my advice on taking customer orders through Twitter and Facebook. He had a brilliant idea. Wouldn’t it be great twit your lunch order to your local cafe or the ‘usual’ to your corner coffee shop? Super Chirp is a good start and I hope to see more extensions of this type to bridge the need and desire for transaction twitters that will heighten relationships.
