• MarketingPilgrim , Friday, January 30, 2009 11:30 AM

MarketingPilgrim's Joe Hart has yet another moneymaking suggestion for cash-burning Twitter. He starts by saying the oft-referred to Twitter subscription program, in which companies pay for the right to be followed on the microblogging service, is a good idea, but it misses Twitter's "full potential completely."

Twitter, Hart says, is a protocol, and protocols control the flow of information. As such, it's a service that can be integrated into just about anything. Companies like Google and Microsoft that have become masters of information control "have built insurmountable wealth." One problem for marketers is that Twitter requires URLs to fit within 140 characters. As such, many marketers use URL shortening services to make their links fit. If Twitter brought this process in house, they could not only brand outgoing URLs, they could also control them, Hart says. Now, just think about all those outgoing links on Twitter to places like Amazon.com and eBay. Why couldn't these be affiliate links, he asks? Or what about all those Google search results used as outgoing Twitter links -- why couldn't these be tied to AdSense?

Twitter could also have a future as a payment processor by filling the mobile industry's need for a service like PayPal. Says Hart, "I still think this is a solid idea and I am shocked that not many have talked much more about this."

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