The twitter story is very inspiring. The advent and the rapid adoption of twitter , the sheer number of people on twitter , the volume of information on offer and the ease with which a person can get on twitter and start sharing are the factors that influence this stupendous growth . But to put things in perspective , just by numbers , Farmville , one application/game on Facebook is much bigger than twitter . Everyone is agog with euphoria about twitter and the recently demonstrated investor optimism about twitter is encouraging . But , is this here to stay or is twitter just a passing fad ? Let us talk about this in this post
Let us first admit that nothing is permanent . Nothing stays forever , atleast not in public limelight . I mean , twitter is not the first , there was Jaiku and more recently Google Wave . So what is it that is great about twitter ? Well the rate of adoption is great , and so is the ease of use . The numbers vouch for that . And the possibilities are endless . Without twitter , I could and would never dream of having friends in Indonesia , USA , Pakistan , Korea , Malaysia and Japan . And I couldn’t very well talk to them daily without twitter . This also gives me the additional power of getting current information from all these places and more . For example , before twitter , I could never figure out which is the best restaurant in Putrajaya for noodles , with twitter it is a snap . The same applies to technology and latest issues . All I have to do is ask and I get tons of information .
Twitter also effortlessly makes aid ridiculously simple when a calamity hits . The Haiti earthquake is a wonderful example of that , I saw folks in Mumbai lending a hand to a child in Haiti in a few minutes . When things like the LHC happen , twitter keep everyone abreast to the split second . I have seen astronauts tweeting from space and also followed a lunar probe tweeting . These are things that are impossible without twitter .
There are my friends who derive different kind of value from twitter .They follow celebs on twitter and get immense joy from the personal ( or illusion of) contact that they can have with them . There is no way they can talk and be that close to celebs in the real world without twitter . These celebs are from all walks – actors , politicians , sport icons , Tech evangelists , Heads of state and so on . That is a great game changer .Breaking News is one thing that has been transformed very dramatically by twitter . There are many media arms that source news from twitter . Local trends gives me and idea of what the regional pot-boilers are . Corporates are connecting seamlessly with customers and prospects leveraging twitter to draw great dividends . Even movies and TV shows are using twitter to garner attention .
If you look at all the above wonderful things , you will realize one thing , twitter is what it is because of one thing – people . You and me , we make it what it is . Tweet by tweet we are building a turning point and it is up to us . We need to invent new ways to tweet things that add value and sustain interest . We need to find new ways to get tangible benefits to the real world from twitter and it is up to us .
It is us who is standing between twitter being a turning point or another passing fad . So what are you waiting for ? put on your thinking hat and start tweeting !
Great Article! Very interesting.