The era in which we were the ones to pay with our data and above all to fill with thoughts, photos, videos the otherwise empty Facebook and company boards comes to an end. Almost.
Twitter has finally debuted the feature Super Follows. What is it about? Of a subscription: if you pay, you can follow the person or account in question, otherwise you will have access only to what he wants to make visible to everyone. Conversely, whoever becomes someone else’s Super Follower will receive all the contents, including those reserved for subscribers.
For example, those who Twitter has also started to define creators for some time will be able to decide to make their tweets visible only to Super Followers. Or to dedicate a specific newsletter, a question and answer session, exclusive audio spaces, long threads of in-depth analysis or any other activity that can be conveyed through the tools of the bird’s social network. If it is indeed true that all platforms have been experimenting with bottom-up monetization tools for a few months (we have them analyzed in detail for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Clubhouse, YouTube and indeed Twitter), Jack Dorsey’s platform is the first to put his finger so heavily into his business. A bit as if Facebook decided to introduce paid groups or gave the possibility to pages or profiles to publish only for those who are willing to pay a monthly charge.
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The functionality starts for a small group of users on iOS in the United States and Canada, will be available shortly on Android and other countries in the coming weeks. Beyond the limited scope for now, the date is historic. Not that there were no paid platforms (just think of the case OnlyFans, driven substantially by porn so much that it can no longer give up explicit content) nor dedicated features on the others (paid events on Facebook or Audio Spaces always on Twitter). However, it had never happened that one of the main social networks decided for such a profound turning point: in fact, the platform is destined to double. On the one hand, the free flow, identical to that of now; on the other, hidden behind a rate of 2.99, 4.99 or 9.99 dollars, the one for subscribers. Money collected by creators more followed, which will reserve thoughts, analyzes and contents for payers.
What could happen now
For some, the social network will eventually become impoverished: for example, the most well-known reporters or the most appreciated analysts may decide to finally earn something from their work, beyond the publication in traditional newspapers, and make the most important or interesting contents visible only to subscribers, depriving the community of the bulk of its reflections. For Twitter it seems instead a way of unblocking the stagnation of users, specializing the platform and cleaning it from the inexhaustible mass of trolls and harassers (if I pay someone, I will hardly follow them to intoxicate their conversations, but because I find them useful).
But how many will be willing to pay for another subscription, this time for individual users on individual social networks, in an era already fragmented among a thousand different services? In addition, with two of the proposed rates, any service of streaming audio o video with its huge library. Difficult to say and the bet is just this: to at least partially transform the platforms into places where those who have something useful and meaningful to say can do it in peace (today a new mode of automatic silencing of one week of the accounts that insult is also launched or tag all the time) and maybe make some money. By funding your own work. What happens, still in a very limited way, with services from paid newsletters such as Substack (Facebook will also have its own), but distributed up to the capillaries, that is the microcontent that we publish every day on the channels. And that until today, if we are not influencers of some interest able to move sponsorships and engagements, we have spread for free. Twitter is the first platform to do this in a non-collateral way, with some function, but involving its very nature.
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Be careful though. Democratization is not for everyone: you don’t open an account and start selling content. At least 10 thousand followers are needed, which is a considerable number on Twitter. In exchange, 97% of the subscriptions will be collected, net of commissions Apple O Google, but only up to the first $ 50,000 earned. Above, the Twitter share will rise to 20%.
The model, as well as for individual users, also seems to be able to push some changes in the strategy in which professionals gather and act on Twitter. Being the inability to subscribe to dozens of accounts, net of their favorite superstars, users will probably prefer collective profiles, which host several authors and contributions from several signatures or characters at the same time or on a rotating basis. With just one Super Follows you will thus have the guarantee of being able to view content different from different names on a single account that works a bit from new information channel and online reflection. Another front with which contemporary publishing and creativity will have to confront.
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