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

23 | Posted In Social Media by David

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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  • http://www.passionaviator.com/ Bryan

    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.

  • http://www.passionaviator.com Bryan

    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.

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  • http://www.blackinternetmarketing.com/ Brandon

    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 :-)

  • http://www.blackinternetmarketing.com Brandon

    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 :-)

  • http://kkomp.com/ Sharron

    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.

  • http://kkomp.com Sharron

    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.

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  • http://seedylifestyle.blogspot.com/ Jeff

    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.

  • http://seedylifestyle.blogspot.com Jeff

    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.

  • http://www.articlealley.com/ ArticleAlley

    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!

  • http://www.articlealley.com ArticleAlley

    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?

  • 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?

  • http://potholeschicago.com/ Philip Nowak

    Just another opportunity for people to stroke their ego.

  • http://potholeschicago.com Philip Nowak

    Just another opportunity for people to stroke their ego.

  • http://varaljay.com/ Gabriel Varaljay

    Interesting application. Why to use this? Just for fun! :-)

  • http://varaljay.com Gabriel Varaljay

    Interesting application. Why to use this? Just for fun! :-)

  • http://twitter.com/kbryantuk kevin bryant

    Think your knee jerk is a little to quick. To the extent twitter accounts have currency primarily because of the people behind, the typical million plus follower celebrity for example, you are probably right, but for the Twitter account whose following is driven more by content than by who they are, why wouldn’t someone pay for the ability to broadcast to a well targeted audience that has already been built. Followers in this instance presumably are indifferent as long content continues at the same level.

  • http://twitter.com/searchtempo John Hacking

    I guess there’s a market for Twitter accounts.

  • http://www.whoisbid.com Whoisbid

    Some organizations want Twitter to be more valuable to their business and not use it as a social media tool. This is because they have been spending thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on PPC ads which they never had to to before the advent of PPC.

  • http://www.gogreen-clean.com Go Green Clean

    So one of these sites valued my Twitter account at $2000 give or take a bit. I have to say I believe its value as a business tool far exceeds this. I now have 6500 plus followers and growing every day. I try to produce relevant content and still find it ok to repost many of the same things regularly as well. I would value my Twitter following somewhere around $15,000 to $30,000 based on how I have been able to leverage it.

    I would say that in direct sales twitter has most definitely gained my business nearly $10,000 in direct quantifiable sales in the last year. Now that number cold be dramatically higher if you include the fact that most of my clients share our business through referrals and word of mouth. I think if you can produce relevant content in your field and are willing to keep at it, Twitter is a vehicle that can drive brand awareness and increase sales. The only caveat to this is that you need to be able to produce relevant content that people will want to look at. And you have to be willing to have a long sales cycle as you are not there to sell directly, but to provide tools and expertise that will help create buzz and brand positioning as an expert in a field.

  • http://twitter.com/PennyDealer Penny STocKs

    It valued my account around 1700 $ i think that is a fair value i am happy with it