Twitter Certified Products signal a deliberate shift towards business



Contributing Writer
Twitter Certified Products Photo: Authorized Personnel Credit: Glenn Pebley


Twitter recently released a list of “Twitter Certified Products.”

Presumably these products will continue to have access to the Twitter API after everyone else is cut-off or squeezed.  In any case, the attributes of each partner company offer a very consistent value to Twitter.

Don’t expect to know a lot of these Twitter Certified Products

Twelve companies are initially designated as “Twitter Certified Products.”  Here is the list:

Attensity – a paid “social analytics and engagement solution” for enterprise-level clients
ExactTarget (previously known as Co-Tweet) – a paid “global Software as a Service” provider for enterprise and small businesses
HootSuite – a freemium model “social media management system” for individuals, businesses and enterprises
Mass Relevance – a paid social integration platform for enterprise-level clients
Radian6 – a paid social media management system for enterprise-level clients
Sprinklr – a paid social media management system for enterprise-level clients
SocialFlow – a paid “optimized publisher” for enterprise-level clients
Crimson Hexagon – a paid “ social media analysis and Big Data analytics platform” for enterprise level clients and agencies
Dataminr -  a paid “real-time social media analytics” solution for the finance and government industries
Topsy - a freemium social search and analytics platform
DataSift – a paid social data platform for enterprise-level clients
Gnip – a paid Social Media Data solution for enterprise-level clients

Get the picture?  Cutting off third-party access to the Twitter API serves a two-fold purpose: to get qualified (enterprise-scale) leads for Twitter advertising and to ensure that there are eyeballs on Twitter to consume the advertising.

Twitter Certified Product criteria

Twitter actually developed a list of criteria for third-party apps to earn the “Twitter Certified Product” designation:

    • Make Twitter more valuable to businesses and solve a need that Twitter does not address
    • Help bring Twitter to new or underserved markets
    • Twitter is a core part of your product and you make use of all applicable APIs and features
    • Integrations behave as consistently as possible with Twitter’s own products
    • Encourage meaningful engagement with the Twitter network
    • You are working on an opportunity with significant impact
    • Use Twitter Platform products rather than creating similar products

This probably is more or less correct, but in reality it appears that Twitter will allow their data to be handled by third-parties if it positions them to sell advertising to businesses with big digital budgets.

By that criteria, Twitter Certified Products aren’t anything new.  They just substantiate what Twitter was trying to accomplish all along.

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Writer about social media and tech at Leaders West, I also tweet as @leaderswest.

Altimeter Joined H&R Block And Expion To Chat Employees and Amplification http://t.co/bjsGf9xoQP via @ShellyKramer – 13 hours ago

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

  • waynemansfield

    Like all changes there are winners and losers… but as always, if it is your game, you make the rules which Twitter is now doing!!

  • jimdougherty

    Great insight Wayne! It is Twitter’s game to change – I think there’s a lot of people who feel a sense of loss that they are losing features that they are unaccustomed to. I don’t expect that it will change how the majority of people experience the platform! Cheers!

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