Twitter is making headlines in almost all types of conversations: people are talking how it can be used as a business tool; how it can help to be updated about everything that happens around the world; how its integration with mobile phones can ease the connectivity issue? Putting the gist of this long sentence in one line would be: “Twitter is damn popular!”

The applications and usages of Twitter could be weird and fluke at the same time. Some applications offered quick money without doing anything substantial on your part—allowing to use your Twitter account for advertizing was one of them. Lots of sites offered this application but none of them satisfied the publishers of ads. The mode was tweeting through the publisher's account, which invariably had some links. The payment was made on per-tweet and per-click basis.

This model was popular but followers quickly got educated about these auto-tweets, if we may call them. Most of the auto-tweets never got clicked. I tried this service on my account also using Be-a-magpie.com. I made more than 17 Euro in some days but no more after that. I waited for around a month but all the tweets delivered after that were free. The minimum payout by the application was 50 Euro, which ensured that I can never get the money that I already earned. I lowered that harsh reality down my throat and closed my account--forfeited my 17 Euro, which I earned doing nothing! After this, I never thought of doing anything valuable through Twitter.

Before joining DARE, however, I did manage to do something using Twitter, which could actually be called “selling”. I owned a Spanish acoustic guitar of Jumbo model made by Givson (not Gibson). I had bought it around 5 years back but the condition of the instrument can be termed as “good”. I was thinking to sell it because of time-crunch. Twitter became the mode through which I sold my guitar.

One of my friends on Twitter made a tweet that his friend wanted to buy a guitar. This friend's friend was based somewhere near to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and I was at that time in Punjab. This person asked me to show him some photographs of the guitar so that he could get an idea about the condition of the instrument. Then he asked for the price and mode of payment. We decided that I would be sending it through courier and he can pay me through Paypal. All the formalities were settled and the deal was done—my friend assured me that I will get paid and I can send the guitar. Once I sent the guitar through courier, I scanned the slip and mailed it to my friend's friend. He instantly paid me through Paypal. The guitar got delivered and the story ends happily here.

Now, this was a very friendly-business sort of thing—there was no risk involved, or so to say. However, I was wondering on this aspect of Twitter: can the potential of Twitter for this sort of activity be explored on more broader basis or commercial purpose? --Can Twitter be used to list items that one wants to sell and facilitate in finalizing the deal?

I am sure, lots of people are doing this activity at least in some friendly atmosphere and many would love to try it on commercial scale. What's your thoughts?