Twitter's rise to power

Twitter was launched in 2006 with Chairman Jack Dorsey sending the first tweet “just setting up my twttr”

Since that very first tweet, Twitters popularity grew slowly in the UK until Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry – both active and highly followed Twitter users – talked about the service on Jonathan’s Friday night talk show in January 2009.

It is clear from the image above that the show had a clear effect on the growth of twitter in the UK as it encouraged other celebrities to create their own profiles and talk about Twitter on their shows.

What was Twitter meant to be?

Twitter was intended to be a service which asked the question “what are you doing?” to let friends know where you were and what you were up to. Twitter has since turned into so much more than that…

What has Twitter become?

Twitter has become so much more than just the question “what are you doing?” although the question still exists above the update box on the Twitter website. Twitter is now used for conversations between 2 or more people, sharing of information e.g. an interesting article or useful website. Companies can use Twitter as a method of communicating with their customers. Dell uses several Twitter profiles to communicate with their customers to announce new product releases, offers, and support questions where they respond directly to customers queries.

Why has Twitter become so popular?

Ease of updates

Twitters growth has also been helped by how easy it is to post a new update. Users can update in several ways: the Twitter web site, sending a SMS, applications on computers and smart phones or through email.

Real time news

The ease of update means pretty much anyone can update at any time which allows people to find out what is going on in real time and sometimes well before it is reported on radio and on TV.

For example when US Airways flight 1549 crash landed in the Hudson River in New York the first news about the event was through Twitter. A passenger on one of the boats which came to help rescue the evacuating US Airways passengers took a picture of the plane and posted it onto Twitter. This obviously got people talking about what happened and word spread quickly.

Politicians on Twitter

Twitter has had many other uses to from US president Barack Obama using his account to gain popularity in the polls to the prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, who used his account to send out information on the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

So what next for Twitter?

As Twitter continues to grow, Google have stated they are very happy to pursue an advertising partnership with Twitter. This could potentially mean that people could make money by advertising through the service, but it does run the risk of losing the appeal that Twitter has built up. Since the beginning Twitter has always maintained a clean site design with no ads on home pages or profiles. Would the inclusion of video and image adverts ruin the look of Twitter and cause some users to leave?