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Twitter could work as a way to engage in a conversation. For instance, if I tweet about going shopping for clothing, I wouldn't mind if Old Navy tweeted a coupon at me. That's much more complicated but if they could figure something like that out, the ads would be much more useful.



That's interesting. It's a fine line though. I think I'd get annoyed pretty quickly if after every tweet I was solicited for something.

I've been thinking about a real-world analogue for these types of social communities (e.g. synagogues) that actually makes money. The only one I can come up with is something like a fraternity. You pay dues, and have a local chapter that's also part of a larger national organization.

I'm not a giant fan, but it's very similar to the App.net model. Obviously you don't see massive scale, but you do get money without interfering with the social dynamic. Interestingly, the very fact that it costs money may make it more appealing to join. Curious to see where that goes.


Both fraternities and synagogues are examples of non-profit organizations.


That's what "lead generation" in Mila(http://mila.com) is doing: tweets matching vendor's products/services are presented as potential leads for the salesperson to act upon. When you tweet "looking for a cool new shirt" Old Navy would see your message and could give you a coupon.


check out http://localresponse.com/ - they do something similar but based on explicit and implicit checkins (disclaimer: I interned with them about 2 yrs ago)




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