A day after Twitter revealed that its user base is stagnating like never before, the company began inviting users to test a subscription service that automatically promotes tweets to a wider audience for a monthly fee.
On Friday morning, several companies and individuals tweeted out screen grabs of emails inviting them to participate in the private beta program. A Twitter spokesperson declined to make an official statement on the matter, but a page where invitees can sign up has details on the program.
Last March, Twitter released a survey that hinted at its plans to create a paid subscription service that provides an enhanced user experience with extra tools and analytics. But this is a markedly different plan for increasing revenue.
The program costs $99 per month after users get the first month of service for free. According to the sign-up page, subscribers can just tweet as they normally would, and the program will automatically choose some of their tweets to promote to a wider audience, based on similar interest or location—whichever classification the user picks. This includes “up to” the first 10 tweets posted every day. Subscribers will also be promoted as suggested accounts to other Twitter users.
This service is supposed to take some of the effort out of regular Twitter Ads, which requires users to set up each promoted campaign.
Twitter says it will send subscribers biweekly reports about Tweet engagement and new followers, so brands and power users know exactly how many people they’re annoying.
[Twitter]