Twitter: Friends for Sale

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So what value do people see in Baron's Twitter account? Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot, a Web marketing service for small businesses, is the high bidder so far. Shah says he could use it to launch a nonprofit he's working on. Or he could pair it with a new domain name and sell it as a marketing package for a new startup. He expects other people on Twitter to follow suit in selling their accounts, especially because it's easy to change the username on a Twitter account so that it doesn't contain the name of the person who started it.

Others aren't so sure how much value a Twitter account would have after a sale. Some marketing experts suspect people who have signed up to follow Baron wouldn't stick around if companies such as Coca-Cola (KO), Nike (NKE), or Procter & Gamble (PG) tried to use it. "People are following him because of who he is," says Stowe Boyd, a consultant who works with companies looking to adopt social media strategies. "If he sells it, there is no real value to the new owners."

Off the Market?

Still, the question now is whether Baron will actually end up selling the account. Some people watching the auction pointed out to him that many of the bidders have a background of bidding in spam auctions, which could mean Baron's account could simply end up being used for spam marketing.

In addition, the flurry of interest around his account has actually made Baron more interested in continuing to use it. Since the bidding started, 300 new followers have signed up to follow Baron's account. More important, the communication through Twitter has grown much more provocative and interesting than it had been before. "At first I got a lot of responses where people were shocked," says Baron. "But I started to communicate with them and they were laughing about the idea. That's what I want more than anything—[better] interaction on Twitter. Now I am overwhelmed with all of this back and forth."

Green is an associate editor for BusinessWeek .