You take a short break from writing and what happens when your back is turned? Twitter turns five years old; it hardly seems possible that it’s been that long. The popularity of this micro-blogging platform has soared since its inception, and although figures vary, it’s estimated to have somewhere in the region of 200 million registered users and generating roughly a billion tweets per week.
Instant News
As a communication medium, Twitter has played its part in relaying news from around the globe such as the Japan earthquake and the current troubles in the Middle East. Newspaper reporters and TV crews are now rarely the first on the scene of world events because it’s almost certain that a Tweeter will break the news well before they arrive.
Celebrity
Perhaps one of Twitter’s biggest attractions is letting users follow the daily lives of their favourite celebrities. Many of the world’s biggest personalities like to tweet as much as the next person and I think this has played a huge role in the site’s phenomenal success. I suspect the majority of fans also live in hope of getting a reply from their idols although I doubt it happens much if at all.
Marketing
It’s not surprising that where there’s a communication platform there are marketing opportunities and numerous businesses now have Twitter accounts which in many cases are proving invaluable in spreading brands and extending market reach. The popularity of using Twitter as a marketing means has inevitably lead to Twitter allowing advertising in the form of promoted tweets, although this only happened in the early part of 2010.
Whether you are a fan of Twitter or not, its roaring success can’t be denied and appears to be going from strength to strength. It will be interesting to see what the next five years bring.
Until next time.
