Who says Twitter doesn't have a business model?

Is it possible Twitter may have finally stumbled into a way to monetize its business? Well, maybe.

According to Reuters, over the past two years Twitter reportedly helped Dell sell over $3MM in products to its Twitter followers who were directed to Dell e-commerce sites from posts they placed on Twitter. Dell, apparently, posts on Twitter several times a week and offers up coupons and promotions to its followers (all 600,000+ of them).

While $3MM for a company the size of Dell isn’t exactly a groundswell, it’s something. And although Twitter is not charging Dell for these referrals it hasn’t ruled it out as something they might consider in the future.

Maybe this is the beginning of a vertical application strategy for Twitter where developers using the Twitter API build apps for companies to hawk their wares in a way that generates Twitter fees (e.g., either on a licensing or per transaction basis).

Another strategy that has been kicked around has Twitter monetizing itself by selling its platform as a tool to track public sentiment about a brand (a product, service, politician, or what have you) or other topics of interest to researchers. The problem, at least as I see it, is that the very free nature of Twitter seems at odds with this approach.

Finally, others have suggested that Twitter be used as a vehicle for delivering targeted ad messages to its users. Whether these would be served up in the context of tweets (which seems problematic) or in custom applications built using their API (which seems more promising) is anyone’s guess.

Whatever the approach, the enormous number of people who use Twitter and the passion in which they monitor their messages makes it an incredibly value platform. Now all it needs is a strategy.

NYT's Dowd Does Battle with Twitter

The irreverent and sarcastic New York Time's op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a hilarious piece in today's Times about an interview she had with the inventors of Twitter to find out, to paraphrase Dowd, if they are as annoying as their invention.

Here are a few of the more comical exchanges between Dowd and Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter:

DOWD: Did you know you were designing a toy for bored celebrities and high-school girls?
BIZ: We definitely didn’t design it for that. If they want to use it for that, it’s great.

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DOWD: If you were out with a girl and she started twittering about it in the middle, would that be a deal-breaker or a turn-on?

BIZ (dryly): In the middle of what?

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DOWD: I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account. Is there anything you can say to change my mind?

BIZ: Well, when you do find yourself in that position, you’re gonna want Twitter. You might want to type out the message “Help.”

Seems like Dowd has some issues to resolve with new technology - here's a link to the full column:

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Pizza Hut "Twintern" Program - Who Says There are No Good Jobs Out There?

Who says there aren’t good jobs out there for college students? For instance, Pizza Hut is looking for a college student for their paid summer “twintership” program. According to the job description on careerbuilder.com, the “twinintern” will be responsible for:

• Spreading the Pizza Hut message by collecting and sharing insights and experiences while working for Pizza Hut through social and interactive media: Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, New and emerging media
• Monitoring social media for pop culture news, off-the-wall stories or anything else quirky and fun that he or she thinks would be of interest to loyal Pizza Hut fans
• Monitoring social media for any negative Pizza Hut brand mentions
• Chronicling their experiences through video and posting to selected media

Key requirement – study closely last week’s Domino Pizza gross-out You Tube video calamity and get ready to play defense.

This Time it’s Volvo’s Turn to Experiment with Social Media

Major consumer brands are starting to explore ways to integrate social media into their advertising campaigns - last month it was Skittles, and this month it was Volvo.

In Volvo’s case they promoted their new XC60 crossover SUV with a one day only YouTube page takeover to coordinate with the New York Auto Show. To spice things up, the takeover included a live feed of XC60 Twitter updates from the auto show.

This is the first time YouTube ran such a prominent ad on its homepage. This is no doubt part of Google’s (YouTube’s owner) effort to generate more revenue from YouTube which, it has been widely reported, has been a serious drain on Google’s profitability.

While it’s too early to tell what kind of impact Volvo’s gambit will have on XC60 sales, to me this is a great way to raise awareness and create a dialogue with consumers.

It’s almost a certainty that more marketers will follow suit in the coming months with their own social media experiments. As with anything else, there will be fits and starts but it’s only a matter of time before social technologies become commercialized as a platform for highly targeted online advertising.