Are you Twitter loving Zimbos excited about the monetization opportunities brewing?

We Zimbabweans took to Twitter like ducks to water. There is something about the micro blogging style that resonated with us. Twimbos, as we affectionately call ourselves, have made Twitter probably the most important social media platform in Zimbabwe.

There are way more users on Facebook or YouTube but the noisiest among us reside on Twitter. It is a shame that monetizing those sharp tweets has been rather difficult. There was nothing solid in terms of creator tools straight from Twitter. 2021 is the year guys.

Now the powers that be at Twitter HQ have seen this and decided, let’s try to make these razor-tongued Twimbos a little cash. We have seen the release of Ticketed Spaces, Tip Jar and Super Followers recently.

Ticketed Spaces

Spaces has been the rage lately and Twimbos seem to be loving this Clubhouse competitor. Spaces are live audio conversations that are open to the public to join in and listen. The host controls who can speak and can have up to 11 speakers in a Space.

You need to have at least 600 followers to be able to host a Space. So, it’s for the popular only. Twimbos have been using Spaces, including the man himself, Hopewell Chin’ono.

Ticketed Spaces are just Spaces but the host is allowed to sell tickets for the Space. It becomes just like a regular paid event where attendees pay to be able to listen in on conversations of interest to them.

Ticketed Spaces are available right now and you can get in on the action. Of course, it’s all up to you to have interesting conversations and ‘book’ star speakers.

Tip Jar

It is a tip jar, literally. Here in Zimbabwe, we are not used to the tipping culture because we are decent human beings who believe staff costs should be included in the service/product price.

So getting tips might be harder but I believe in Twimbos, some may make tips a thing. I think Twimbos would have sent tips to Hopewell Chin’ono back when the man came for him.

For the Tip Jar feature, Twitter allows users to add links to third-party payment services to their profile. Followers who want to support the user can send money directly to them.

For now, the feature is still in testing and is only available to a few beta testers. It is only a matter of time before it’s live for everyone else.

$uper Follows

Here Twitter allows users to have two sets of followers. The normal followers like we have today and Super Followers. The Super Followers pay a monthly subscription fee to support the user and access extra content.

It is up to the user to create value in the ‘behind-the-scenes’ content so that Super Followers can subscribe. Twitter suggests the bonus content can be unfiltered thoughts, early previews and subscriber only conversations.

The creative Twimbos can definitely make money from this. I know there are users I would pay to have unfiltered conversations with, safe from the prying eyes of the general public.

This feature is still in testing and is only available to a few iOS users in the US for now. It must be mentioned though that Super Follows is off to a slow start. In it’s first two weeks, only $6000 was generated by the less than 100 creators in the test group. That’s an average of more than $60 per creator. In Zim context, that’s not too bad.

In closing

The monetization features that we discussed are new and are direct from Twitter. Personally, I think the Ticketed Spaces have the most potential for Twimbos. This is not to say people are not making money from Twitter even right now. The other monetisations remain viable:

• Promotion of affiliate products / services

• Promotion of own products / services

• Whatever else people are doing

You have tweeted for free for far too long, it’s about time you got paid for your witty remarks my friend. Get in on the action.