Comments on: What Are A Million Social-Media Followers, Friends Or Subscribers Worth?

By: David Moore

David Moore — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:39:47 +0000

Twitter can indirectly lead to some revenue for any given company or freelancer that obtains great twitter followers as clients. But as was pointed out, Twitter itself doesn't garner any user revenue outright, and I think that's okay. I still think Twitter is a valuable tool for learning about what people are saying about your brand/company/product or what have you. I find that the real time feedback that Twitter allows to any user is extremely valuable information. It's not a purely effective survey tool because the bias lies in the fact that you one mostly likely has followers because they like what's being offered.

So yeah, that's my 2 cents on the matter.

By: London

London — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:43:56 +0000

I think the article misses the point about twitter, it is different to other social sites and is the most commercially viable platform bar none. Where else can you find customers who are interested in what you are selling so quickly (in real time even) and for free? Where else can you see who your competitors customers are?

Scott, with 5000 followers you should be making very good money through that one channel alone.

I don't think twitter was envisioned for this purpose of course but commerce makes the world go round as they say.

By: free virtual worlds for kids

free virtual worlds for kids — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:32:28 +0000

Seems like beyond asking users to pay for subscriptions, it would really be quite hard to get money out of people just using the technology to socialise and interact with friends (which was what the technology was intended to do in the first place). What would have been the developers' thoughts on how income is to be earned through such websites, if micro-transactions didn't actually feature in their plans?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:50:14 +0000

IBM is doing some interesting research on the internal value of social media: http://tinyurl.com/deh96u

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:21:17 +0000

This is where the true quality over quantity comes into effect.

If you look at a lot of the celebrity accounts (on Twitter, at least) they employ ghost tweeters. This sees a lot of the accounts accept spam followers and robots, so the figures are worthless.

Look at a user (even if they *only* have 5-10,000 followers) that has done it properly, manually checked each follower before following back, etc, then the value comes in.

I've picked up 7 clients in the last 2 months on Twitter, and they approached me, purely from what I was saying, talking about, advising others, etc.

This isn't boasting – it's just saying that social media (and Twitter, for this example) does pay off. Just be prepared to put in the work and the commitment, and most of all, converse.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:19:24 +0000

I love post like Adrian's. A paradise, indeed… The promised land.
Have you ever thought about where all this milk and honey come from? Your relationships might be priceless, but Twitter, the idea, the infrastructure it requires, the people who maintain it — for you! — all this costs something. I am not talking about profits, just the costs.

Wake up Mr Eden!

By: Adrian Eden

Adrian Eden — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:44:18 +0000

The followers that one acquires are worth more than money. Knowledge and friendship is priceless. I have met some of the nicest and most interesting people using services like Twitter. I wish we would stop always trying to add a dollar value to everything. At the end of your life, money is worth nothing, and the people and relationships that you experienced, are what really matter.

If you are sincere and add value to the people around you, money will find you.

By: Samer Forzley

Samer Forzley — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:21:41 +0000

I would argue that there is value attached, I would even say its negative. think of all the effort CNN spent to get to 800K + followers on twitter. Its CNN, the largest world wide news network, what did CNN gain? if anything the lost, at least if i am watching the news on CNN, I may catch a commercial.

My 2 cents here http://is.gd/rwGl

By: Adrian Chan

Adrian Chan — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:18:45 +0000

There will probably never be a way to measure value of followers that produces a reliable dollar valuation. There are simply too many links in the value chain. But the idea raises interesting questions!

For example, as twitter grows, does the value of number of followers increase or decrease? One could say the value increases with every follower. Or one could say the number of followers relative to overall population is what matters.

Depends on whether we value the follower measured against overall twitter population — or overall market and audience (on or not on twitter) size.

Another thing — many followers are following for their own sake, and to increase their own following. There would be no way to account for this: who's following strategically, who's following because they're a genuine fan.

By: 23 OMNIMEDIA, INC.

23 OMNIMEDIA, INC. — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:38:53 +0000

In 2008 Facebook grossed ~ $0.39 per registered user from virtual good sales (based on their own member numbers and leaked revenue figures). Wonder if that figure can scale down to 'fans' and group members…