So Twitter. You know what it is... right? Of course you do it is that web thing that everyone is talking about. The thing that Zuckerburg was pining after, before he realized Twitter and Facebook solve different needs. The thing that John Mayer was all about before he switched to Tumblr. It's a public bulletin board / web messaging system / chat room for people to tell the world about the things they do and do not care for, the things they eat, the places they go, the people they meet, break news stories, and talk about sex and everything in between. A year ago we were asking: Do we need this? Do people care about what people are sharing here? Today, those questions are about as meaningless as that poor sap who asked Thomas Edison if we needed the lightbulb. People are using it... but not just using it, they are flocking to it. In April of 2009, Twitter had around 14 million unique visitors per month... a year later that number is closer to 180 million.
How did Twitter achieve this feat? Well basically by not trying to achieve it. Just think about what makes a tweet work. How do you connect one individual's opinion, state of mind, or current state of doing to another's? How do you join a conversation or bring topics together? You use a #hashtag. Funny thing is, Twitter didn't actually introduce the hashtag. It was introduced by Twitter's enterprising early adopters. But it was Twitter's own open system... its focus on simplicity, and its user centric experience that enabled it to became what it is today.
So in case you missed my point. Twitter is relevant now. Deal with it. The question now is what has it become and where will it go?
My opinion... Twitter is at the very least the megaphone of the web (and yes probably so much more than that). People see something that they like, or read something that intrigues them, or find something that grosses them out, and they tweet about it. A short comment about that thing with a hashtag thrown somewhere in the middle. It is a public messaging system. A BBS... where one can post shout outs, ideas, inane observations. It is a place where communities can form spontaneously and simutaneously around topics of interest thanks to the power of #JustinBeiber #Gaga #Obama etc. Comments (tweets) about Justin Beiber alone monopolize 3% of Twitter's server. This magnitude of comments isn't happening on Youtube's Justin Beiber videos. They aren't happening on his official fan page. They aren't happening on Google Sidewiki or Disqus. They are happening on Twitter. And they are happening for thousands and thousands of other topics. I think this is one of the best things about Twitter. People don't have to go search the web for a place to put their comments. They don't have to gain entrance to a community first before they can make there voices heard. They don't even have to know that such a community exists. All they need is a Twitter account, an opinion, and a hashtag.
Anyway assuming that I am right... that what Twitter has become is largely a megaphone for the world, what does that mean? We have heard about Twitter breaking news stories like the Hudson River plane crash, being used as an instrument of protest against authoritarian regimes. Brands have begun to realize the importance of having a presence on Twitter in order to help them manage customer relationships. Marketers and advertisers have noticed and begun exploiting the viral power of the retweet. But what about outside of Twitter? How are tweets being used in third party applications and websites? Well they are primarily being used in blogs where tweets are included to extend their existing commenting mechanisms or websites to distribute their content through an individuals Twitter network. But how else can Twitter be used? How else should it be used?
This is where I think things get interesting, and a topic that I have not seen talked about very much.
When tweets are integrated into blogs and sites as they are right now, tweets are being treated as individual units. The focus of the blog or site is first and foremost their own content. Showing tweets (like comments) is a way for them to gauge how engaged people are with the content that is being displayed, and to encourage others to engage with them. This is good, but it isn't the only way one can use tweets.
What if we step back and adopt a more holistic view. Remove the blog, the site, the content from the picture. What is a tweet? Well part of that definition I already mentioned. It is an individual's expression of sentiment and action. But it is much more that it. A tweet does not exist alone. It is an individuals public thought, self organized by hashtag, time, and location. Aggregate it vertically (i.e. the individuals Twitter stream) and you have a good idea of what a person is interested in. Aggregate it horizontally and you have an ever-morphing timeline on any particular topic/event, ranging from the MTV movie awards to conversations with Obama, and the ability to predict the future
A tweet is more than just a tweet. It is an exploration of thoughts and attitudes from millions of individuals of different persuasions. It is a single node of web, a way to navigate, explore, and discover new thoughts, new content, and develop new insights.
