Assigning a Dollar Value To Your Twitter Account – Is It Just Wrong?

November 23, 2008

As you guys know (if you read this blog), I am a pro-blogger and that means I blog for cash. I turn my blogs into businesses which can feed me an income. So, I’m interested in monetary value.

But, there are some things where monetary value doesn’t – and shouldn’t – matter. And one of those is Twitter. So, when I saw TweetValue last week, I was rather taken aback. Here is the tweet I sent out when I found it:

Oh sweet jesus: http://tweetvalue.com/ – Now we’re assigning monetary value to a Twitter account? [sigh]

tweetvalue_400

Unlike Twitterank, this one doesn’t ask for a password. Just plug in your Twitter username and out comes a value. It valued my Twitter account at $602. When I tried to find out how this was calculated, it only said “The value is calculated with a PH.D algoritm (sic) that is based on public information available on your Twitter profile”. I don’t think the guy could have possibly been more vague.

Assigning a value to a Twitter account is good for nothing except a fuzzy feeling. It just doesn’t matter because:

  • Twitter accounts have followings because of the PERSON behind the account. If that account is sold, it would not retain the value.
  • Value is only based on what somebody would pay.
  • There is nowhere to buy Twitter accounts (that I’m aware of)

At the end of the day, this is supposed to be SOCIAL media. I understand that it is the natural inclination of people to rank and file things and Twitter is no exception. However, some things aren’t about money and I think Twitter is one of them. It just FEELS wrong.

What do you think?

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  • There "could" in fact be considered value there. Basically, if you have 3,000 people following you, it would be assumed that those followers are part of your target market. If someone else were to assume your Twitter account, who was also in the know with the field, and could continue it along a parallel path, that person would immediately have those eyes available to channel into a website or blog. So, I can see the point here. The problem is the valuation is bunk. There is no yard stick to measure by to assume its value. It would be worth what it could be sold for - there is no way to know what it could be sold for, unless you tried to sell it. If this sort of thing becomes popular, then the trend would begin to create a yardstick for future sales.
  • I think the value is a garbage number. But the curiosity of what the Twit is valued at did exactly what they wanted it to do: Get us to talk about it and get us to visit :-)
  • I wonder how long before people start trading Twitter accounts on ebay?

    As you say "If that account is sold, it would not retain the value."

    I reckon there is someone somewhere shrewd enough to sell it, as well as someone somewhere dumb enough to buy it.
  • Already twitter accounts are being offered for sale. Not so much because of the amount of followers, but because of the name of the account. The same as with www domain names. See for instance http://twitter.com/yellowpages , but there are many of them.
  • Twitter can be a valuable source of traffic and a great way to meet people interested in the same things as you - it stands to reason that this value has a monetary equivalent but as others have said its not realistically going to be realised unless you sell your website / business along with the twitter profile.

    All the same its a bit of fun!
  • Francisco
    I think that this is actually as disturbing as hearing someone use "your net worth is ___$" in a sentence. I agree that it is weird, however society (especially in capitalist nations) has tended to try to create a way to "quantify" the value of people in monetary terms.

    I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to somehow cash in with tweeter, but I think that can already be done by using it as a vehicle to raise awareness of exactly what it is you do (ie. blog, sell cars, etc.), and market yourself accordingly.

    The 2 big questions though are:

    1) do you think your tweeter account, and all the networking it has helped you do, helped you make more or less than $602?

    2) Would you sell your tweeter account, if the money were right?
  • Just another opportunity for people to stroke their ego.
  • Interesting application. Why to use this? Just for fun! :-)
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