Posted on May 16, 2008. In The Web.
If you haven’t heard of Twitter already it’s a ‘micro-blogging platform’ where users post tweets - 140 character messages - in answer to the question “What are you doing?”. As a user you can ‘follow’ others, and others can ‘follow’ you, with your tweets being broadcasted to your followers. It works out as a mixture of status updates, IM messages, and shared links.
“What’s the point?” you may ask, on the surface there’s not much to it, and certainly most non-twitterers don’t get it. But the same question was asked of many social networks, before wide-spread adoption, and users are flocking to Twitter much as they once did to Facebook. I for one can certainly attest to an addiction to Twitter, it’s described beautifully by the TwitterCycle.
My very own Twitter Cycle
Tweets can be posted a variety of ways - through the web interface, by IM, by SMS, or using one of the many apps - making updating hassle-free. As tweets are short messages they’re very manageable - I’ll almost always read a tweet - whereas I’m often put off by a lengthy blog post. This makes Twitter a great tool for keeping up to date with people and for them to keep up with you. People naturally like to share and to receive - Twitter facilitates this beautifully.
The system of following allows Twitter to take on another dimension. Tweets are broadcast to all your followers - a one-to-many message - but there’s the functionality for direct messages - private one-to-one messages - and @replies - a weird amalgam best described as one-to-one-to-many messages. This lets Twitter take on a conversational element thereby adding another layer of functionality.
Twistori
People have been finding new and interesting ways in which to use Twitter. Stories recently such as the user who posted “Arrested” on his arrest in Egypt - rallying followers to take action on his behalf - and claims that news of the Chinese earthquake was broken on Twitter by web icon Robert Scoble just go to demonstrate it’s power. The marketing possibilities with Twitter are enormous - there’s huge potential for ‘word of mouth’ marketing - and there are great tools such as TweetScan which can be used to monitor a campaign’s impact. And there’s lots being done by the tech community, who have taken Twitter into their hearts, creating a deluge of mashups and apps. There are apps to post to, and monitor, Twitter - Twhirl, Twitterific, and Hahlo to name but a few - and some tasty little mashups - my recent favourite being Twistori - appearing all the time.
So Twitter undoubtedly has its uses. It might not be just a tech world fad either - recent estimates put the user base between 1m and 1.5m (Twitter doesn’t publish actual figures) - and the buzz is spreading amongst journalists and marketeers. Give it a try, the worst that can happen is that you’ll become hopelessly addicted. I think Twitter is here to stay, I’m addicted anyway.
Hugo, this Twitter Life Cycle thing is spot on. I recognize myself in parts of yours. Except the toilet part LOL
Thanks Lee, I must credit Kathy Sierra via Cog Dog for that however, I just rejigged their version it to better describe my own slippery slide into Twitter obsession.