by: Idris Mootee
Twitter is touching more people than NYT or WSJ (ok it may not be a fair comparison). Add to the fact that a lot of Twitter users rarely hit the hyper-text-transferred-to-the-browser page, but rather use through a desktop and/or mobile app, and the figure gets even more impressive. Twitter is continuing its unstoppable move forward.
And what about those Twitter traffic "machines" and “buy your follower” programs? Twitter needs to figure this out as soon as possible. Twitter litter? Perhaps a payment/filter model will eventually work, weeds out the hackers that wont pay $5/month for access to Twitter that has real people and conversations happening. We are also seeing Twitter viruses starting to happen. Anti-virus for Tweeter?
The 140 number is doing magic, at least for them. How did they get this magic number? I was reading Patrick Glinski’s paper on Twitter Strategy (part of a series of Social Media Knowledge white papers that we are publishing), it is a very good piece. There’s so much hype abut Tweeter and you can’t imagine how many times Twitter is mentioned when I’m watching CNN news, the news anchors are actively promoting their tweets. TV is not enough?
I’ve had probably more than a hundred requests for Tweeters but I still have not jumped into the bandwagon. Sorry I must have disappointed many. I just struggle to write in less than 140 characters. I need at least 486 characters in order to say something meaningful. So I have a problem. Think about it this way, most people who twit are men (no formal statistic, just my guess) because most men are comfortable in communicating in less than 140 characters or less. We have fewer words in our vocabulary and usually say things short and sweet. On the other had, women’s verbal capacity is far bigger than men. Women are better in communication in general and don’t usually get to the point fast. So the next big idea may be 300 words Twitter for women?
Can we milk this 140 idea? I just wonder what happens if we limit our everyday conversation to 140 characters per message? What about a social network that only allows 140 connections and your friends need to compete or stay active to remain in your network? What about your wireless carrier sending you your month statement in 140 characters? I hate reading these monthly statements as they can’t even design one that people can understand. Go hire a usability person! How about Twitter TV? These 140 seconds show? What about Twitter music? This one is cool.. Twitter Dating! 140 persons you can meet in 140 days?
Twitter TV is real, they have teamed with Reveille productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners to develop an unscripted series based on the site, which invites 140-character postings from members around the world. The show would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format. The producers call their proposed series the first to bring the immediacy of Twitter to the TV screen.
