Twitter’s Contributors Feature – Will it be Good for Business?

12.21.2009 | Sylvia Park

On Mon., Dec. 14, Twitter began testing a new feature called Contributors. According to PC World, this new feature ’allows business users to manage how its employees post 140-character messages from a single account. Writer Ian Paul says this new feature indicates Twitter is ’interested in commercializing the service.

The primary focus of Contributors is to create a more authentic engagement for business accounts. It allows organizations to manage multiple contributors to their account to optimize engagement opportunities via Twitter. For example:

• With the Communiqué PR Twitter handle (@Communiquepr), multiple employees could contribute to the handle and post updates.
• If @CMMoffitt (Colleen Moffitt) was posting a tweet on the companyís behalf, then a tweet from @Communiquepr would include @CMMoffitt in the byline. Below is an example from Twitter:

The exact launch date has yet to be announced, however, the company says the Contributors feature will eventually be available to all business users through its Web site and through third-party clients such as Seesmic and HootSuite. Commercial accounts are expected to be rolled out by the yearís end. These accounts will be subscription services with some form of analytics incorporated to help businesses better leverage Twitter to reach out to consumers.

While some companies are adding employeesí initials to the end of the tweet to disclose the person behind the update, this new feature could mitigate issues surrounding transparency and enable users to ’get to know the real people behind the organization.

Do you have any thoughts on this feature? How do you think it will impact your business and your organizationís use of Twitter?

Weíd love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a comment or send an e-mail to info@communiquepr.com.

Tags: Colleen Moffitt, Contributors, HootSuite, Ian Paul, PC World, Seesmic, Tweet, Twitter