Twitter Tests Premium Business Features

Following Biz Stone's recent confirmation that Twitter would indeed be launching premium account features for businesses "by the end of the year," the company has given further indication of what exactly those features might look like.

Writing on the company's blog yesterday, Anamitra Banerji, a product developer at Twitter, introduced a beta test of a tool dubbed "Contributers" that will allow multiple users to contribute to one corporate account. The feature will append the contributor's specific username to the tweet byline, which, according to Banerji, should help businesses communicate with users on a more personal level, letting "users know more about the real people behind organizations."

It's a pretty simple feature, and hardly one that is likely to have large-scale implications for the social network. However, it is another indication that a revenue model for the service will revolve around providing businesses and marketers with tools, services and analytics, as opposed to more traditional advertising opportunities.

Banerji adds that the feature is "one of several in development," and that a full launch to all business users will follow a trial period.