Social Media News

In midst of a rapidly growing technological revolution, our life within a fast paced society stands to be forever changed with the advanced development of the international space known as the Internet. Prompted, largely in part by rapid transformations in the dot-com world, society has strengthened into a global network of connected residents. Balancing on the axis of diversity, the Internet has allowed those with differences to come together in a technologically stable global community. Within this age of knowledge and information, this new aged communication has given the world a new outlook with developing social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. These sites allow residents of the Internet’s global network to have their voice of diversity heard. In early 2009, the face of social networking stands to be forever changed with a social networking breakthrough known simply as, Twitter. As a child of the technological age and multitasking generation, at 26, I identify, like many, with technological advances. With an increase in coverage from mainstream media outlets, Twitter captured my interest and gained my support instantly. Signing up with ease, it was clear to me I was a part of something that stands to control the way social networking is perceived. Recognizing, almost instantly, how the future stands to be changed by this single concept known as ‘micro-blogging’, I have decided to bring my subjective perception of a Twitter revolution, to the connected world one character at a time. With that said, lets dive into the massive amount of information that exists about Twitter by starting with an factual overview of the concept and insight of the company by asking the simple question, ‘What is Twitter?’

Twitter is a simple to use, free social networking site that enables its users to send and receive updates known as ‘tweets’. Twitter puts a limit of 140 characters on each text-based tweet, a concept that was first defined by Twitter known as ‘micro-blogging’. These micro-blogging concepts are displayed on each user’s profile, which can be easily set to public (most preferred) or private, and are called ‘updates’. These posts or ‘updates’ give each user a diverse public voice, and allow each user to become the media by creating their own media. Twitter also gains individuality, from other popularly known social networking mediums, by allowing its users the opportunity to post their content off of the primary website. Users can post content via cell phone SMS or various third party applications. Twitter also has its own adopted language that members may reflect from time to time in their ‘tweets’. Each Twitter citizen, for example, is designated as a ‘Tweep’ (also referred to as a single ‘Tweepie’, or to a plural group ‘Tweepole’) and entertainment on Twitter is properly defined as ‘Twittertainment’. Each user’s updates disperse through the Twitter population, appearing instantly to other users who have subscribed to their feed. These subscribed users are known as ‘followers’. Public pages hold no restrictions on who is allowed to view each update & remains a dream world for the nosiness of mankind, often referred to as a stalkers dream. Private pages can easily be restricted to a chosen group of friends, these users need to be added by the owner of the page. Tweets can be reviewed, sent, and created through a variety of web-based external applications and third party clients as well as the Internet, and mobile phone mediums. Each user can determine, based upon their networking needs, the medium they wish to use. Increasing rapidly is the number of users who connect via mobile phones which allow for the transaction of SMS, or short message services. SMS services may charge a fee; these vary based upon each individual phone service provider. Typically, the average Twitter user connects through the Internet while large majorities use both the Internet and mobile phone and some use multiple technological based medium that includes third party applications.

Leading the current social networking concept in a revolution of its own, Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey in 2006 but gained colossal notability at the start of 2009. This notability was made largely in part by mainstream media sources as well as an increase in number of active celebrity users. Both creating not only brought notability but widespread worldwide popularly. Often described as the ‘SMS of the Internet’, Twitter provides its users to comfortably transfer short updated tweets via application based programming. Each tweet acting as text messages obscures Twitter greatly and has allowed for its rapid popularity increase as the favored social networking medium.

The numbers of users that use Twitter daily vary, as Twitter does not publicly release the number of activated accounts being held at a certain time. An estimate of 4-5 million users was given in November 2008, prior to the overwhelming rise of mentions in mainstream media. Social networking studies done in early February 2009 show that with its 55 million views each month* Twitter as the third leading social network following MySpace and recently popular Facebook. To no one’s surprise, the popularity gained by mainstream media outlets has allowed Twitter to be known as the fastest-growing site, gaining enormous popularity in March 2009. This growth rests at 1382% where as growth of the leading network of Facebook being only 228%*.

Avid social networking users of the Internet and tech geeks, commonly ask the question ‘can Twitter successfully host this growing network of users with its limited funding’? Google, remains on top as a multi-billion dollar industry however Twitter’s funding is currently a chunk over $50 million. A breakdown of financial records shows $57 million of Twitter is owned by venture capitalists, a type of private equity that serves companies in the early stages of growth and development. Backed largely by private partners, in addition to the $22 million raised by Twitter’s CEO Even Williams*, Twitter gained another $35 million in mid February 2009 by these private partners such as Union Square Ventures. At the end of 2009 Twitter soared to funding of $155 million as reported by TechCrunch.

As an addiction looms for some ‘Tweeps’, many struggle with the desire to update their network at odd hours of the day and night, some on the toilet. Other individual users answer the question ‘what are you doing’ in various ways, regardless of text limitation these individuals find no limitation of their own personal creativity. Some of these users resort to communicating their opinions to their acquired network while others bring a new aged marketing technique to Twitter. Various emergency service officials are growing attached to Twitter as a method of providing relevant community safety updates. In many large cities, primary in the United States and United Kingdom, police and fire departments are using this quick communication method for protection of a rapid growing technological society. Brand marketing has increased, dramatically, in 2009. Large companies are marketing new products and giving coupon codes via micro-blogging services. Today’s comedians are flocking to Twitter to test out their jokes. Twitter was used on the 2009 presidential campaign trail by Barack Obama and is growing with outlets such as Fox and CNN to allow for the public community to voice their diverse opinions. Word is being spread about good causes and charity events such as breast cancer, animal rights, save the children, etc through Twitter. Twitter is also a very popular place for celebrities to connect with friends as well as their fan-base allowing the fans to directly share their support and opinions. As a growing social networking revolution, Twitter allows for unlimited ideas to be gained and shared by a connected global society reaching out towards the unknown while bringing people closer together in a mainstream networking revolution.

(Copyright © Social-Media-News 2009)