Aflutter over Twitter
The ANC and the Congress of the People are both using Twitter to garner support and inform people about upcoming election rallies
And US president Barack Obama made it an integral part of his successful 2008 election campaign.
Twitter (twitter.com), founded in 2006 by San Franciscans Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, is the biggest social communications sensation to hit the Web since Facebook The service now has millions of users and its growth is exponential — of the kind Facebook enjoyed 12-24 months ago.
Yet despite its popularity, Twitter makes almost no money. The company says on its website that it has many “appealing opportunities for generating revenue”. However, “we are holding off on implementation for now because we don’t want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand”.
What makes Twitter so attractive? In a hyperconnected world, the service allows people instantly to keep up to date with their friends and colleagues, no matter where on the planet they happen to be, using PCs and mobile phones. It is also a great way to follow like-minded people.
It shouldn’t always be assumed that Twitter users are the real deal, though. At the weekend, the office of the Dalai Lama purportedly signed up and within 24 hours he had more than 16000 followers. A post — known as a “tweet” — supposedly sent from his office says: “His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office open and assessable (sic) to a more youth (sic) and technologically advancing (sic) audience.”
Twitter quickly removed the account when it discovered it was created by an impersonator. One hopes the real Dalai Lama is better at spelling and grammar!
Many people’s posts reflect the minutiae of their lives: “Brewers & Union — the one reason I’d move to Cape Town”, “Having a coffee at Vida”, or “At Builders Warehouse — never knew baths could be so interesting”.
But Twitter, which has just 31 employees, has become so much more than just a window into people’s (often boring) lives.
The most popular Twitter users have hundreds of thousands of people following their tweets. The most followed are Obama, author Stephen Fry, social news pioneer Kevin Rose, tech journalist Leo Laporte, Spears, British talk show host Jonathan Ross, Twitter’s Williams and cyclist Lance Armstrong
Now businesses and political parties have begun to see value in using Twitter, too.
The news media, in particular, have been quick to embrace the service to attract readers. CNN, for example, uses Twitter to post breaking news stories from around the world.
Then there are companies such as computer maker Dell and retailer Amazon.com that use Twitter to communicate more closely with their customers and to find out what people are saying about their products.
Politicians are also getting in on the act. President Obama has more than 250000 followers and used Twitter extensively to garner support — he has since stopped tweeting because of onerous White House rules.
In SA, the ANC and the Congress of the People are both using the service to rally supporters and inform people about upcoming election rallies.
No big-name local politicians use the service themselves yet, but I don’t think it will be long before some of them latch onto it. Imagine President Kgalema Motlanthe tweeting. Somehow I can’t picture that.
Loading ...