CoTweet, the Twitter CRM tool already being used by numerous big brands, is announcing the launch of their Enterprise Innovators Program.

Previously a free tool for beta users, the new enterprise option tacks on additional analytics and tweet history and starts at $1,500/mo (according to The Wall Street Journal). The company is boasting that McDonald’s, Microsoft, SunTrust, Coca-Cola, and Ford have already upgraded.

According to CoTweet, paying customers get reach analytics, engagement analytics, influence analytics, a lifetime archive of customer interactions, faster Twitter updates, and account management from a dedicated resource. While we’ve been impressed with CoTweet’s initial offerings, the minimum $1,500/mo price tag does seem lofty for a Twitter tool, though perhaps not for the big budget customers the company focuses on.

With the move, CoTweet is now also infringing upon the territory of enterprise Twitter analytics service providers like Alterian (Techrigy) and Radian6. However, CoTweet also doubles as a pretty sophisticated Twitter client that gives multiple individuals the ability to manage the same Twitter account, which makes the addition of analytics an intriguing all-in-one option.

Even if you do have the budget for managing your big brand’s Twitter presence with CoTweet, you’re still subject to their approval process. The Enterprise Innovators Program is currently by invitation only, so you’ll still have to request an invite for the paid service.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock.

Tags: cotweet, enterprise, twitter

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Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, Microsoft, SunTrust, and Whole Foods are among the early adopters, which is quite impressive.  Another interesting detail is that CoTweet isn’t exactly begging for clients; the program’s existence was discovered by Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew LaVallee, and businesses in fact have to request an invitation to scope out the new offering.

As for what their interest (and monthly payments of $1,500) will net them, the CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program offers engagement, influence, and reach analytics, along with archives of customer interactions and a couple other things.

Anyway, this development could provide a number of clues concerning the future of Twitter.  One point in the site’s favor is that corporate users are so fascinated by it.  This should give Twitter some staying power.

Also, although the launch of the CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Program might seem like yet another missed revenue opportunity (Twitter’s indicated before that it might try to make money by selling premium accounts and analytics services), Twitter could still presumably join the game at any point in time.

The interesting thing is that these well-connected companies didn’t wait for it to do so.  Microsoft and the others almost surely would have heard if Twitter had a service in the pipeline, and then would have held out another couple of weeks or months to use it.  So any sort of official offering may be quite a ways off.

One last item of note: a post on the CoTweet Blog made clear, "The CoTweet public beta remains free for consumers and enterprises."

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