Development and growth of the Twitter community


If you already know about Twitter, the organization and its founders, you're ready to understand the evolution of the service with regard to the people who use it, many of whom now claim they can't live without it. Since its inception, the site has attracted users from all backgrounds and with varying needs and intents, which seems like the recipe for widespread adoption, businesswise.

For some early users, Twitter emerged as that aforementioned respite from the e-mail onslaught so that as a way to reach many recipients ("followers") more quickly than can be done with traditional e-mail transmissions. Others were under impressed, countering that it would prove itself to become just another handheld cultural distraction that would only attract the mindless and meandering youth of this inconsequential informationindulgent age, eager to click and cluck their time away. It didn't take long, however, for the Twitter team to silence those who fell into the latter camp.

Indeed, throughout the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, a number of interactive and media conferences held annually in Austin, Texas, the Twitter team in attendance powered up large, 60-inch plasma-screen monitors and used these phones display the stream of messages authored by attendees, who used the service to actively keep in touch with one another's activities and whereabouts as the festival ran.

The immediacy of the information coupled with the novel approach to delivery made Twitter the surprise hit from the festival, and tweet traffic jumped from 20 000 messages per day to sixty thousand, solidifying the foundation upon which the service was being built and would keep growing. The results of this South by Southwest festival were telling in that they demonstrated the true audience for the Twitter methodology, and young and old, those most receptive to its value have continued to make good use of its benefits, both sending and receiving.

Since that South by Southwest festival, Twitter's user base has grown exponentially. According to Nielsen Online, people around the globe happen to be spending more and more time in "social networking" endeavors, be that on traditional blogs and networking sites or within the emerging microblogging realm. In the first 1 / 2 of 2009, Nielsen charted that total minutes spent in social network had increased 82 percent year over year for all users surveyed using the average time each person spends networking having increased 67 percent year over year.

As for Twitter, it had been recognized as the fastest growing Web brand as of May 2009, realizing an astounding 1,448 percent increase year over year, with its user base growing from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in May 2009. Moreover, average time spent at Twitter per person had increased 175 percent, from 6 minutes 19 seconds in May 2008 to 17 minutes 21 seconds in May 2009. Within those growing statistics are millions of ears and eyes trying to find relevant and rewarding experiences, the sort of people you might want to connect with if you have the product, service, or experience these people are actively seeking.

Now to have an even more interesting statistic: although Twitter was charted as the fastest growing brand throughout the first half of 2009, its monthly growth showed a little bit of tapering off within that same period, leveling a bit as some of its faddish newness had begun to wane a bit. Sure, it became the hit with celebrities, newscasters, as well as presidential candidates, enticing an incredible number of citizens to flock into it to rub virtual elbows with the red carpet crowd, but when the fanfare passes, also do some of the fair-weather followers.

Is this bad news a negative trend for Twitter? Arguably, no. The trends show that just like other successful and sustaining social network hubs, such as Facebook, will work to retain (and attract) a committed audience, so too is Twitter. After the fan-boys and girls have scampered to another "cool place to be," the wise among the users will have learned that developing a lasting relationship with a committed audience is more beneficial than fruitlessly striving to maintain the attention of the bubblegum crowd.

Businesspeople have discovered to engage in these sorts of technologies early and then to stick around to reap the benefits of the toolset long after the Hello Kitty kids have gone. This isn't to disparage the youth - they are a viable and important segment to understand and entertain - but a lasting endeavor builds upon a loyal audience. To continually chase the flashbulb-popping contingent would be to waste time and money continually reinventing towards the new flavor from the month. Make sense?

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This article was sent to us by: Jerome Miller at 02232011

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