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It’s no secret that Twitter is still trying to figure out how to make money.  You’ll see from this article that the founders of the company readily admit that fact.  New ventures such as ExecTweets and MarchTweetness are good ideas for niche sites that get sponsored by companies in conjunction with an advertising partner (Federated Media).  But these sites are not how Twitter is planning on making its money long term.

One of the most interesting things about Twitter and how hot it is becoming is how much value it provides to companies and individuals in all sorts of industries.  Think about some of the more popular Twitter users – the folks who have built a following in the 5 and 6 figure ranges – @algore, @timoreilly and @kevinrose for example.  I’m no marketing expert, but what these people and their companies are getting from Twitter: EXCELLENT, FREE marketing from simply throwing thoughts and links out into the Twitter ether, is pretty astonishing.

Marketing like this cannot be purchased – and sure, much of it is derived from having built companies that people like, as well as a personal brand that is recognized across the Internet.  So the real value of Twitter from a business and marketing perspective  is in one’s followers.  Build this up into thousands and you’ve got yourself free advertising and exposure that many companies you pay an arm and a leg for.

I understand that Twitter will never be able to directly monetize user’s followers, but it does seem like there is an opportunity to generate revenue from the tweets of highly influential Twitter users – especially when they tweet about other companies (see @TechCrunch and @JasonCalacanis for examples – @JasonCalacanis spent much of the afternoon today (3/26) at the Tesla Motors unveiling – I never would have heard about this if it weren’t for Twitter).

Specifically, I’m thinking about an advertising platform for companies/brands to opt-into – and when an influential tweeter (say someone with over 10K followers) mentions the company or links to them, they pay (based on a calculated ROI perhaps) both the tweeter and Twitter takes a cut…

Just a brainstorm…anyone else got ideas?