Twitter considers paid 'premium' service for power users

WASHINGTON - Twitter confirmed Friday it is considering a paid subscription service that would give frequent users more tools to use the social network for marketing, journalism and other fields.

The survey this week showed Twitter is looking at building a more powerful version of Tweetdeck, the dashboard that many use to manage their accounts.

“We’re conducting this survey to assess the interest in a new, more enhanced version of Tweetdeck,” a spokeswoman told The Verge. “We regularly conduct user research to gather feedback about people’s Twitter experience and to better inform our product investment decisions, and we're exploring several ways to make Tweetdeck even more valuable for professionals.”

According to  to AFP,  the survey is intended "to assess the interest in a new, more enhanced version of TweetDeck."

An upgraded TweetDeck would put Twitter in competition with third-party services for social media accounts such as Hootsuite or SocialFlow, which allow users to manage multiple accounts and measure the impact of their messages.

The move comes as Twitter is struggling to boost its membership and keep up with other fast-growing social networks, and to move to profitability for the first time.

"Twitter is considering offering a more advanced TweetDeck experience, with more powerful tools to help marketers, journalists, professionals, and others in our community find out what is happening in the world quicker, to gain more insights, and see the broadest range of what people are saying on Twitter," survey participants were told.

"This premium tool set will provide valuable viewing, posting, and signalling tools like alerts, trends and activity analysis, advanced analytics, and composing and posting tools all in one customizable dashboard."