Want to Restrict the Age of Your Twitter Followers? This New Service Can Help

A social marketing platform is launching a new feature for alcohol brands on Twitter to help them make sure their tweets are reaching an age-appropriate audience.

Vitrue — a platform that helps companies such as American Express and McDonald’s manage their social-media presences across sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ — will introduce “Twitter Gate” to screen and control who has access to their promotional content. The move will also restrict interactions and engagement on Twitter with age-appropriate audiences.

Vitrue said it is currently in talks with several brands and expects the feature to officially roll out for in the near future. In the meantime, Vitrue set up a demo Twitter site for a fictional alcohol brand called Brookstrut Brewery.

Here’s how it works. After attempting to follow the brand, Twitter Gate sends a direct message to Twitter users: “We only allow people who are of legal drinking age to follow us. Please click this link to verify your age: pub.vitrue.com/val,” @BrookstrutAle said.

The experience is customizable and could include specific questions such as “What is the date of your birth?” This method would check the age of Twitter users before they are able to subscribe to its stream.

Designed for wine, beer and spirits brands that embrace a socially responsible digital presence, the feature could be rolled out to other industries in the future, the company said.

“Brands have a responsibility to make sure they take appropriate measures to ensure the right age group and demographic is looking at their content,” John Nolt, director of product management at Vitrue, told Mashable. “This will allow brands to demonstrate their commitment to that effort.”

Should alcohol brands restrict underage Twitter users from following them on the site? Let us know in the comments.

Mashable