Technology and Living in the 21st Century

Disclaimer: This graphic is for demonstration purposes only. It in no way implies or refers to an actual license plate or individual.

I was looking at the number of Twitter accounts that have folllowers in excess of 100,000 and though about some of the recent news stories outlining how some of these Twitterers have been able to use their tweets to help public causes using a single (140 character) tweet. It got me to thinking about the domain name squatters who have made a living at registering domain names, parking them and finally selling them to the highest bidder at a very tidy profit. Could the same be done with Twitter?

Twitterers who have large (and sometimes very loyal) followers can get a message out to 100,000+ people in a matter of minutes. These tweets can then be RT (retweeted) to another 100,000+ people in a couple of more minutes. Given enough time, these tweets can become viral.

Think about it for a moment. If you have enough followers, a great branding message and a cool (or name brand) Twitter username, you have the potential to make a lot of money either leasing yourself out or selling your twitter account outright to the highest bidder.

What about those people who have moved on from domain squatting to Twitter squatting? How much money do you think they could make selling brand name Twitter usernames? In the current economy, I don't think too many companies will be making any outrageous offers in the near future. But when things turn around and the economy picks up again, I think we might see this turn around.

There is a lot of buzz in the media about Twitter. I'm assuming it is because of human interest, popularity, and the ability for one Tweeter to have a significant affect with 140 characters. I can only assume that all of this media attention will have corporations running out to see if they can secure their Twitter usernames and get on the new social media bandwagon. Those that are too late....well, let's just wait and see.