Twitter: "a short burst of inconsequential information"
Before I begin this blog post I quickly want to review the definition of the word Twitter, which in my opinion, sums up the concept of the application quite neatly.
I am sure that many, if not all of us, have sat in a class or in a library wondering what our friends were up to. Calling them in either of these situations, however, would not only be disruptive to those around you but it would be downright rude! What if I told you that there was a way to find out what these people were up to, what they were talking about and what they were thinking - all without the laborious conversation or disruptive phone call? And what if I told you that you could connect with virtually anyone, anywhere in the world, all at the tips of your fingers?
Here's the pitch - you can do all this in 140 characters or less.
Fellow bloggers, I am here to blog to you about the social media PHENOMENON known as only as Twitter.
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A Brief History
Twitter's modest beginnings started in sunny San Fransisco, California as the brainchild of Chairman Jack Dorsey. He and the board of directors for the podcasting company Odeo first conceptualized the idea of the application in 2006. At first, Twitter was just a simplified SMS text-based "status updating" application. Since then, Twitter has exploded into the world of social media, introducing the world to the craze known as "micro-blogging" and is now ranked as third amongst the most used social networks.
An early sketch of the application, it was originally
known only as "Status"
What is truly remarkable is not only the application itself, but the speed at which it has reached so many in such a short period of time. Here are some stats, in just three short years Twitter now has:
- An average of 55 million monthly visits
- A monthly growth of 1,382 per cent
- A projection of 1 billion users by 2013
- Been ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide
WOW. In terms of website growth, those numbers are pretty impressive.
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¿Did You Know?
Twitter was used repeatedly as part of the Canadian and U.S. election campaigns. Notably, Democratic Party nominee and now U.S. President Barack Obama used it for publicity. Twitter also facilitated real-time updates during terrorist attacks (the Mumbai bombings), near-airplane disasters (the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River) and the H1N1 health scare. Are celebrities your thing? Why not find out what they are up to? Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to get up close and personal with celebrities and influentials alike. We can follow their every move, find out what they like, where they are and we can even talk to them if we want. Gone are the days when you need to "befriend" someone before you can learn about them, now all you have to do is follow them on Twitter!
Fun Fact
One of Twitter's biggest growths came when Ashton Kutcher and CNN competed in a friendly race to hit one million Twitter followers first. The actor beat the news network and now ranks as Twitter's most popular celebrity with over three million people tuning in for his updates.
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Twitter: Craze or Phase?
Twitter: Craze or Phase?
To be quite honest, before I began this course I had formed a very biased opinion about Twitter. I looked at it only as another application that would govern my life. Facebook was a chore to manage in itself, and I simply could not keep up with yet another social networking tool. The fact that the only people who seemed to be using it in the media were Disney tweens also added fuel to the fire.
Reluctantly, I signed up for an account as per requirement for the course.
Today I can sit here and say that I truly am glad that I am now a member of the Twitter family, and I am under the thrall of the craze. Upon my extensive research into the application I soon realized that Twitter was not only a tool for tech-savvy tweens or communications gurus. Certainly public relations practitioners will find great use out of Twitter in terms of positioning their own personal and their organization's online identities. But anyone with a basic inclination to communicate and share information will find great use out of the application. With user age demographics all over the board, Twitter truly has something for everybody.
Because the application is so versatile and the interface is simple to use, Twitter appeals to people of all ages - even your grandmother could use it! Features like Twitter Mobile make "tweeting" from virtually any mobile device simple, without incurring any of those nasty data fees.
I personally found the application appealing because it is in constant flux. It is not static. No longer must you open up the browser on your phone, load your profile, update your status and constantly re-open your browser to check if anyone has commented on it. No longer are you sitting and reading a long, winded paragraph about your friend's favourite quotes and why they are so inspiring. Twitter makes vital and useful information available on a global scale.
Perhaps the greatest appeal is the fact that you are able to tailor your account to suit you and your interests. Simply put, you follow who you think is interesting and those who think you are interesting follow you. Information is spread globally by sharing or "retweeting" it to your followers and they will retweet it, and so on and so forth. With an accumulating number of sister sites like Twitpic and Notepub that are hosts to many different types of multimedia, even more information is made readily available via one simple tweet.
Today I can sit here and say that I truly am glad that I am now a member of the Twitter family, and I am under the thrall of the craze. Upon my extensive research into the application I soon realized that Twitter was not only a tool for tech-savvy tweens or communications gurus. Certainly public relations practitioners will find great use out of Twitter in terms of positioning their own personal and their organization's online identities. But anyone with a basic inclination to communicate and share information will find great use out of the application. With user age demographics all over the board, Twitter truly has something for everybody.
Because the application is so versatile and the interface is simple to use, Twitter appeals to people of all ages - even your grandmother could use it! Features like Twitter Mobile make "tweeting" from virtually any mobile device simple, without incurring any of those nasty data fees.I personally found the application appealing because it is in constant flux. It is not static. No longer must you open up the browser on your phone, load your profile, update your status and constantly re-open your browser to check if anyone has commented on it. No longer are you sitting and reading a long, winded paragraph about your friend's favourite quotes and why they are so inspiring. Twitter makes vital and useful information available on a global scale.
Perhaps the greatest appeal is the fact that you are able to tailor your account to suit you and your interests. Simply put, you follow who you think is interesting and those who think you are interesting follow you. Information is spread globally by sharing or "retweeting" it to your followers and they will retweet it, and so on and so forth. With an accumulating number of sister sites like Twitpic and Notepub that are hosts to many different types of multimedia, even more information is made readily available via one simple tweet.
Screen shot of TwitPic
Screen shot of NotePub
Screen shot of NotePub
But will it last?
Given its widespread success and phenomenal growth, I think we are only seeing the beginnings of Twitter. The application has much potential and with plans to enhance system uptime and add search engine capabilities, Twitter will become a force not to be reckoned with. Future goals also include increasing the overall revenue stream through the use of add-on features. While Twitter may not be going anywhere anytime soon, what I do suspect is that we will see an over saturation of copycat micro-blogging websites just like it. When there is one, there will always be another - but Twitter will stand the test of time.
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Reflections...
The speed dating assignment was truly a great learning experience. Not only did I learn about this blogging website, which is free and simple to use. I learned that many other applications incorporate Twitter into their interfaces to create cohesive and powerful social networking tools. Examples include: AIM Express, Bingtweets, Google Reader and Flikr. This further proves that Twitter is certainly a versatile application and can be applied in so many different ways. So get creative!TwitTip
Have you ever wanted to tweet a link to a website or blog but found that the link took up most of your 140 character limit? Avoid those long, cumbersome URLs by simply copying and pasting them into websites designed to shorten links, like tinyurl or bit.ly.
I would like to end this blog post with the above video. Instead of defining Twitter like I did at the start of the blog, this video captures the true essence of how social networking applications connect us all. Through tools like Twitter we can now work collectively to reach organizational goals, no matter how large or small the scale.
