An Interview with InRev CEO, ‘TwitIn’ and Possibilities with Twitter

And Twitter Apps have been the most significant building blocks of the ‘Twitter Ecosystem’.So,we caught up with Bhupendra Khanal, CEO of InRev, who along with his team, has been making waves in Twitter World with a Twitter Application called ‘TwitIn’.

We queried him about TwitIn,Twitter and a mishap that happened to his Twitter Account recently (account suspension).Here is the Full Interview…Take a look !

Q. Describe you product ‘Twitin’ & its prime utilities

A. People waste a lot of time finding and following other people, which they can invest in reading good materials and posting quality Tweets. InRev TwitIn helps there. TwitIn is about Twitter Account Management. You can basically perform three actions there. You can reciprocate your followers, clean your Twitter cache by removing people who are not following you and grow your network following new people ramdomly.

We have also started giving ‘InRev TwitIn Score’ based on User Performance with respect to other users. It is based on three basic parameters: ‘Tweet Efficiency’ (efficiency of each tweet to bring in followers), ‘Influence’ (follower to following ratio) and ‘ReTweet Ratio'(ReTweet to Tweet Ratio).More things are in the pipeline. Will keep on adding more features as we move on.

Q. How is the user response to Twitin so far….

A. User response has been very exciting. We started this project for fun; but soon realized that it has potential to be more than that. Daily traffic in the site is increasing every week, and has crossed 500+ unique visits per day. We are excited about it.

Q. Being a heavy-duty twitter user, what’s your take on Twitter as the ‘Next Big Marketing Media’.

A. There is no doubt about it. I think, Twitter has already been the new big marketing media. I have been marketing InRev Services and my blog through Twitter, and the performance has exceeded search (Google and others combined). This again has come at no monetary expense.

I am bullish about the use of Twitter Search API; its really killing. I use Twitter and Google to search for reading materials; and most of the time I like Twitter results. Nothing surprising. It has human effect.

Q. To what extent is it justified for people(specially internet marketers,bloggers…) to invest plenty of time on a free web service.In other words,Will Time investment on Twitter really pay off ?

A. Now the traditional Marketing Media does not work. People do not want to consume news or views from one way channels such as News Channels and News Papers. They want to interact, and want to know people behind any product or service.

Blogging started this revolution, Friend connecting sites (like orkut, Facebook) took it little further and Twitter is sure to take it to a newer height. All this because of real time interaction; no one wants to wait a days or weeks  for a response. They want it NOW. Twitter is the future, and someone who doesn’t Tweet is sure to lose the benefit of this new revolution.

Q. You got your account banned recently(which got re-instated later).Why it all happened.What was your immediate action after the suspension that happened with you.How fast,sensible and efficient was the response from the ‘Twitter Support’ ?

A. I saw Tweeters like Guykawasaki and Unmarketing follow all who follow them, and they are pretty much successful. They are real Twitter Stars, and are different from people like Britney Spears and Barack Obama who are real world stars using Twitter. This user behavior showed the reciprocative attitude of most Tweeters, and I started following as many people as possible touching Twitter upper limit. Twitter got a feeling that I was a bot and suspended me for aggressive following.

I then wrote to Twitter on why they should not suspend me. I gave them reasons such as high Twitterholic Ranking and Grader Ranking; apart from running a company with interest in Twitter Applications. They found it genuine and took the suspension back.

I was not worried about the suspension; I knew I will get it back. When you become too aggressive you tend to be acting like a Fraud; and being an Analyst I understand that.  I wrote to Twitter immediately and started exploring other options for  Micro-blogging. Twitter support was fantastic, they acted on my request within 24 hours; and I stopped exploring Twitter’s competitors.

Q. Do you have the same level of trust on Twitter after this ‘Account Suspension Mishap’.

A. Yes, I do. I have the same level of trust on Twitter.  I have even more trust now. I am bullish on the use of Twitter and will be going ahead with TwitIn as well.

My advice for other Tweeters is, never worry about anything. Do what you feel like doing. Keep your mind open and follow your heart. Dont worry about losing your account or losing your followers. Honesty is the greatest strength one can have. If you can perform well once, you can do it again. Loss teaches people; doesn’t weaken people.

By this suspension, I knew that people care me. After suspension I went to search.twitter.com and searched for @leplan; @NischalShetty had written good words about me and why I should not have been suspended. More people supported him, and few started new discussions.

There were people who felt suspension was justified too. This made me rethink my Twitter strategy; after all I am not in Social Media to bore or harass people. I am there to make good and progressive relation.

This incident gave me good friends, and some ways to improve myself. I think, I am in a better position now.

Q. As you company ‘In-rev’ has built a Twitter Application,any ‘Twitter business model’ that comes up later might target Twitin (just like any other active Twitter app) as the money source.Are you comfortable paying Twitter for your company’s efforts in building the ‘Twitin’ application ?

A. We do have Twitter Business Model. It includes design and sale of Social Media Marketing Package (training and maintenance); premium account for TwitIn with lot more facilities; and using frame based ads for the link Tweets.

We are open to paying Twitter (and also other API providing Social Media services) for services we use, and have approached Twitter for partnership. Haven’t got any response from them so far, but hoping to get it soon. I am looking for revenue share model.

Q. Lastly,how does it feel being the ‘Most Followed Indian’ on Twitter ?

A. I am a Nepali, so better word would be ‘Most Followed From India”! Top is just a position, and count a number. I don’t think about it much; but yes I feel good when friends points it. It shows their care for me.

South Asia is about Love and Relations; there is less professionalism but more of emotions. I get many follow referrals from friends in India.

I am very thankful to them; we have more love than competition and refer each other for follow. I don’t see people worried about numbers and this is helping all of us. Hoping things remain same always.