jatiN mahindrA doT coM

CoTweet, a company that helps businesses use Twitter, released some details about a new service today, and in doing so, demonstrated that there’s a real demand for such things.  The CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program already has at least six major customers despite costing $1,500 per month.

Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, Microsoft, SunTrust, and Whole Foods are among the early adopters, which is quite impressive.  Another interesting detail is that CoTweet isn’t exactly begging for clients; the program’s existence was discovered by Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew LaVallee, and businesses in fact have to request an invitation to scope out the new offering.

As for what their interest (and monthly payments of $1,500) will net them, the CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program offers engagement, influence, and reach analytics, along with archives of customer interactions and a couple other things.

Anyway, this development could provide a number of clues concerning the future of Twitter.  One point in the site’s favor is that corporate users are so fascinated by it.  This should give Twitter some staying power.

Also, although the launch of the CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program might seem like yet another missed revenue opportunity (Twitter’s indicated before that it might try to make money by selling premium accounts and analytics services), Twitter could still presumably join the game at any point in time.

The interesting thing is that these well-connected companies didn’t wait for it to do so.  Microsoft and the others almost surely would have heard if Twitter had a service in the pipeline, and then would have held out another couple of weeks or months to use it.  So any sort of official offering may be quite a ways off.

One last item of note: a post on the CoTweet Blog made clear, "The CoTweet public beta remains free for consumers and enterprises."

Related Articles:

> 20 Goals For Business Social Media Use

> 8 Reasons You Need To Stop Ignoring Twitter

> A Suggested Users List For Twitter That You Can Actually Use

Related posts:

1. Sysomos Offers Location Based Monitoring Service
2. National Weather Service Asks For Twitter Storm Reports
3. Microsoft Launches Twitter-Esque Service In China
4. Google Analytics adds loads of new features
5. Exploring Customer Service Efforts Using Twitter
6. Investing in Enterprise Analytics
7. An In Depth Look at Twitter’s New Terms of Service
8. TweetMeme Bringing Analytics to the Retweet Table
9. Twitter Turns To Outside Sources For Advice On Own Service
10. 10 Great Ways To Use Twitter To Your Business’s Advantage
11. Twitter Gaining Steam As Customer Service Platform
12. Twitter Getting Rid of VIP Autofollow Service