Twitter Is Taking Over The World
Twitter is taking over the world. Little by little, the miroblogging machine has become a part of millions of people’s lives. Yet, the trait that distinguished twitter from the rest is the way in which it is used. Twitter revolves around the idea of ‘What are you doing?’ but, has expanded and gained the ability to carry a full conversation, give news feeds faster than the news broadcast and has also been there for us when we wanted to post the most random thing that comes to mind at 3:27 AM. This technological burst will forever change the way in which we communicate and live our lives.
I distinctly remember the day I got my first cell phone and talking to my parents about the rules and responsibilities that go along with it - mind you I was in 7th grade. However I never though that acquiring a cell phone would change the way my life played out. Instead of my parents answering the home phone and giving the calls to me to speak with friends, they were now directly calling me, taking up quality video game time as well as having to hear that annoying old ringer time after time.
I see twitter as the new cell phone. People have become comfortable with updating their twitter status every hour or even more frequently. Celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon as hundreds of them have twitter accounts themselves and are in full support of this growing social network - Shaq’s Halftime Tweet, John Mayer Tweet Obsession. This is not a fad, and will be here for some time until the next new idea catches on. Yet, I feel that twitter has something here that is completely different that the other social networks. Rather than getting all worked up about updating your profile on Facebook, twitter simplifies things by getting the message across and read by thousands of people in a very short amount of time. This new way of communication and viral dialogue has become a facet in day-to-day excursions for millions. I feel that Twitters popularity will continue to grow since it’s being thrusted into the entertainment light from all the celebrity gossip than can be obtained on this network. So to sum it all up: If you don’t have a Twitter account, get one here, and get used to the microblogging way of communication for two reasons. The first, as it will be here for some time and the second being that EVERYONE ELSE has one, so just do it. For all of you who do have Twitter accounts, here is a list of the top celebrity Tweeters thanks to Times Online.
Top Celebrity Tweeters:
- Stephen Fry 98,616 Followers - http://twitter.com/stephenfry
- Lance Armstrong 53,813 Followers - http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong
- Britney Spears 53,290 Followers - http://twitter.com/britneyspears
- Rick Sanchez 48,825 Followers - http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn
- Shaq 46,296 Followers - http://twitter.com/THEREALSHAQ
- John Cleese 44,142 Followers - http://twitter.com/JohnCleese
- Jonathan Ross 43,432 Followers - http://twitter.com/Wossy
- MC Hammer 34,042 Followers - http://twitter.com/MCHammer
- Jimmy Fallon 27,163 Followers - http://twitter.com/jimmyfallon
- Dave Matthews 24,064 Followers - http://twitter.com/DaveJMatthews
- Russell Brand 15,673 Followers - http://twitter.com/rustyrockets
- Demi Moore 11,655 Followers - http://twitter.com/mrskutcher
- Arnold Schwarzenegger 11,147 Followers - http://twitter.com/schwarzenegger
- William Shatner 7,599 Followers - http://twitter.com/WilliamShatner
- Snoop Dogg 7,549 Followers - https://twitter.com/snoopdogg
I disagree that Twitter is taking over the world but it is clearly becoming an important tool in everyone’s marketing arsenal, and it should.
While twitter has a long way to go to be a true marketing platform I would encourage you to read the post above as well as a couple of posts I have written lately:
- Why you should join Twitter: http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/do-not-miss-the-boat-join-twitter/
- An unofficial roadmap of what Twitter must do to become a viable marketing platform: http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/the-unofficial-twitter-roadmap-for-a-social-marketing-delivery-platform-don%e2%80%99t-pass-it-on/
The most important thing is that you understand what the tool can do, how it fits within your overall strategy, and to not get caught up in the hype.
John
http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/JohnFMoore
I use Twitter but I’ve yet to see the point of it. I’m only following a little over 200 people. There is no way I can keep with what they are doing and why would I. I would never get anything done.
I’m hoping it will click for me one day and I will see the value in it.
~Reesy
I just want to start off by saying great article. Its an interesting topic and one that most of us dont really think about.
It’s interesting how twitter is catching on. I personally do not have a twitter account but I can see myself acquiring one in the near future.
You make a good observation in your article, that twitter is changing the way we communicate with one another. Its another example of technology changing our personal lives. Its kind of like when the telephone was invented, people no longer needed to write letters to their long distance friends or family in order to communicate with them. Same as when TV came out, as TV sets became more affordable and popular there was a shift from listening to radio to watching TV. Some people feared that it would make books obsolete. As we all can see books still exist. Similarly with the Internet, email and instant messaging offered a new way of communicating and even paying bills.
Twitter wont make cell phones or other ways of communication obsolete but it will be interesting to see how exactly it changes the way we communicate, what we communicate and who we communicate with.
I think you made some very good points, however, in addition twitter is changing the way receive news. For example when the plane landed in the hudson river people who were able to see the events taking place from their office or home windows were able to tweet about it before the news was able to report it. The first images were on twitter.( blog post about it http://tinyurl.com/88ean9 ) So besides personal communication it is affecting the travel of news.
I don’t know if it’s taking over the world, however, I think it will be more than a fad. Yet, is anything with technology more than a fad? If something better or more instant than twitter comes out, I’m sure that will be all the craze and twitter will be another outdated social networking site.
I am less convinced that twitter is "taking over the world" than I am that marketing types think that it SHOULD take over the world and don’t want to be left out if it does. At this point it seems pretty incestuous with a small number of twitterites tweeting each other. I followed a few tweeple (sorry, this gets habit-forming) who followed me. They turned out to be marketing dudes pushing their own agenda big time. 141 characters my arse. These guys were pumping out the tweets at a rate of many/hour. I felt like I was being stalked. Eventually, I shut them off. Moral: Tweeting just to push your own string and doing it obsessively = bad marketing strategy.
It’s time sites like Twitter begin to recognize that they’re the platforms for future websites to build upon. As a new web platform, they should look to invest more in infrastructure before attempting to monetize their recent success.
I can see twitter would be a marvelous tool for online marketeers where the "list", or more precisely, the long list, is the ultimate access to a vast potential buyer market. Having said that, even this concept works well only if one has the ability to establish a faithful following by building up a reputation for a specific expertise, etc. Hence, the large number of smarties out there making some good money teaching how to take advantage of twitter for building income streams.
Also, as an add-on comment, be aware of long lists though, as they need to be confirmed. For example, when you see Britney’s list, yes all these people registered as followers, but the question is, how many of them are actually following her after they registered. But again, twitter as a tool, is the new kid on the block and as such is enjoying the new-wild ride; until the new kid shows up…
I agree with Reesy, and I’ve found that many Twitterers (or tweeters if you must) have the same opinion. It’s like there’s something more to twitter than the media buzz, but no one had figured out what it is yet. We all want to be there when someone gets it so we can share.
I like the fact that Hudson river plane crash was first mentioned on Twitter. Not just a marketing tool - also media channel..