The rise of Twitter seems to fit with the current news agenda, many sources are covering it. Shortlist have a cover article on Twitter this week and it makes regular appearances on news shows. Growth has been sharp after bubbling along in techie and social media communities we have seen usage escalate in the past 4 months. Steven Fry and the at the time very bored Jonathon Ross helped propel it in to the mainstream consciousness. Whats it all about what does it really mean? There is no one better to explain this than the Twitter CEO Evan Williams in this talk from February 2009 at the technology Entertainment and Design conference in California.
My take on all of this is that it is the flavour of the month, exponential growth is not sustainable so it will plateau and the media will probably turn on it; flash in the pan, yesterday news so 2008 etc etc.
Evan's talk does show how it can be sustainable in the long term, its a different kind of communication platform. I think it is a kind of media duct tape, you don't know why you'll need it but its good to be aware of it. unexpected events, local issues, sales micro marketing to a very small very influential group. If you have stock that needs to be gotten rid of at rock bottom prices then reward the people who are interested enough to follow you. Have an opinionated CEO? Give them a mouthpiece to speak to lonly those who want to hear. I doubt we will be seeing Twitter on the news much in 3 months time but micro packets of information easily distributed by on the fly structures of people with a temporary common interest are here to stay.
