Twitter lowers monetisation barrier for millions

Sahail Ashraf posted on 21 April 2023

Twitter is all about monetisation right now. It is in the process of making it a lot easier too.

Over the last twelve months, Twitter has been dealing with a huge amount of problems. Many of these have centered around leadership. Elon Musk is now very much in charge of Twitter though, and like any super successful business owner, he is looking for ways to make even more money for the brand. 

The latest move towards increasing monetisation of the platform is a kind of revamp of one of the older initiatives.

This is an update, if you will, of the ‘Super Follows’ project, where people could subscribe to the Tweets of their favourite creators and receive special benefits for doing so. 

So how does it work?

Twitter explains it like this:

Subscriptions are a way for people’s most engaged followers to help them earn money from Twitter for their contributions on the platform. When someone has a Subscription offering, their followers can sign up to access bonus Tweets created especially for them. Subscribers receive badges on their replies to the person they’ve Subscribed to, letting them stand out in the conversation.

Currently, only people in the United States who meet the eligibiity criteria can participate in the Subscriptions program.

Way back when Super Follows was first introduced, you had to have a minimum of 10K followers to be included and able to monetise your account. The new Subscriptions allows people with just 500 followers to join the program. The barrier to entry for monetisation has therefore been drastically lowered.

This is fantastic news for anyone who has something of value to offer an audience. This of course could include brands if this is part of their monetisation strategy. 

This is what a subscriber would recieve as benefits (although Twitter makes it clear that the account holder decides which of the following will be given to subscribers):

• Exclusive Tweets:
• In addition to the regular Tweets a creator posts, you’ll also see Tweets in your Home timeline posted exclusively for Subscribers to interact with and reply to.
• Notification of exclusive Tweets (iOS and Android only):
• Subscribers on Twitter for iOS and Android also have the option to set up exclusive Tweet notifications so they get notified when new Subscriptions Tweets are posted.
• Subscribers-only Spaces: 
• Participate in live, Subscribers-only conversations hosted by the person(s) you Subscribe to. You’ll join these Subscriber-only Spaces as a listener who can request to speak in the Space.
• A Subscriber Badge:
• When you reply to a Subscriptions Tweet, a public badge next to your display name in the reply will identify you as a Subscriber. Anyone can see this badge, but if you’re on Twitter for iOS or Android, you can choose to hide the badge from your replies to a Creator’s public Tweets by turning the setting off. 

How much do Subscriptions cost?

This is entirely down to the creator. There are three price points:

• ▪️ $2.99
• ▪️ $4.99
• ▪️ $9.99

This seems like a nice spread, and will allow creators to strategically manage what they reward subscribers with. In that sense, it is a good business model.

In regards to the criteria, there has to be that 500 follower count, plus anyone eligible has to have tweeted at least 25 times in the previous 30 days.

Interestingly, Twitter has said it will give all the money from subscriptions to the creators (after fees from Apple and Android etc) until the second year. When that second year rolls around, Twitter will make it clear how much it will take as a cut of the subscription revenue. As to how much that cut will be, that’s anyone’s guess. 

Will it work for Twitter?

That lowered barrier to entry is a big part of this. With more people able to get involved, that first year of growth could be huge for Twitter. If it goes according to Twitter’s plan, millions more people could start subscribing to accounts to receive benefits. And in the second year, Twitter could take a small percentage of the revenue and make a lot of money.

However, when Twitter tried to introduce the Super Follows project it just didn’t gain the kind of traction it should have done. And with the current state of chaos at the company, Subscriptions will need to be handled with care and focus. Getting people to spend money just to read a Tweet, for example, is no easy feat.

But let’s just imagine it will go well. If brands want to capitalise on this going forward, maybe it’s time to start building up those thought leadership micro-blogging skills again?

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