What is Twitter?

Written By: Ferg on July 31, 2009 Comments

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Despite the consistant urging of friends, Facebook didn’t really catch my interest, and when I heard about Twitter I was equally indifferent. After all, who has the time? However, I did begin to realise that Twitter was a phenomenon of some decription and decided to look deeper, especially when I noticed that credible businesses were adding Twitter links to their sites. Naturally, this trend was more prominent in the web-tech sector than many others at the outset, but word was getting around fast. I decided to investigate, but my first actual encounter with Twitter was a confusing and somewhat surreal experience. All I could see was a bunch of random messages flying around like some bizarre verbal version of the Alfred Hitchcock movie; The birds. I got out of there fast before getting ‘virtually’ pecked to death in the banal tweet frenzy…

“I’m off to get a coffee after this tweet”, “I’m thinking about buying some new socks”, “My cat thinks she’s Davey Crocket’s hat”, “I’ve spilled my cornflakes all over my laptop!”…etc.

What could this all mean? Why were people doing this? Months later, I still don’t know the answer to these questions, though the dynamic appears to be similar to that of someone panicking and jumping onto a moving train without checking the destination; …“I’m damned if I’m going to miss this train, no matter where it’s going, after all it might be mine”…

I have since learned some of the the SEO advantages of twitter, and can see certain potential benefits for business. I can also see the obvious useful applications for TV and Radio stations etc. However, I am still not sure what twitter exactly is, or how it intends to capitalise on it’s phenomenal success. In the meantime, I’m damned if I’m going to get off this train, just in case it goes somewhere I might want to be…

“I’m off to tweet my post now, and then put on a Joe Bonamassa CD”