Twitter To Offer Commercial Accounts…For A Fee

The fact that Twitter has had, well, issues, coming up with a way to actually make some money off their service has never been a secret.  The fact that they’ve been desperately needing a way, also, has never been a secret.  Looks like steps have been taken for Twitter to do exactly that as it appears they are going to be offering commercial accounts sometime in the upcoming future.

Could this be the way to a profitable future?  Perhaps.  As Microsoft just recently rolled out ExecTweets using Twitter technology, Twitter is hoping to bring in some much needed revenue by offering accounts that are aimed directly at commercial users and give them some expanded features beyond the standard free accounts we all enjoy.

No price points or even what features that will be added to spruce up the deal have been even hinted at, but I’m thinking that in order to get companies to actually spend money on accounts, they must be pretty substantial.  The question remains, as long as the free service is offered, why would businesses pay money to open up accounts?  What features could lure them into that?

The fact is, micro-blogging and Twitter style updates are becoming much bigger and more prevelant in the world of business as a way for companies to interact much more directly with their customers and the public at large.  The time is now to get on board, as new research is showing that “By 2011…some 80 percent of social software platforms will include enterprise microblogging as a standard feature.”

So, what do you think?  Will people pay?  Will they stay for the free account?  All of these questions are big ones and all need answers.  The financial future of a lot of these companies could be at stake.