Twitter Taking Over?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mager/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

I seem be to reading and seeing more and more about Twitter over the last few months, especially in news reports about celebrities.

Twitter now boasts millions of users and between February 2008 and February 2009 the social networking site saw it's number of users increase from 475,000 unique users to 7 million! Having recently been named as the most used word of 2009, 'Twitter' beat 'Barack Obama' which came in at number two, it clearly is becoming a very very popular social networking site.

Newspapers, especially sport sections, have found Twitter to be particularly useful. Over the Summer during the football transfer window Darren Bent got into a spot of trouble with this rant aimed at Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy over the delay in his transfer from Tottenham to Sunderland; "Do I wanna go Hull City NO. Do I wanna go Stoke NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland YES. So stop f*****g around Levy." That produced a decent story for many newspapers, I used to The Sun to source the quote (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2564795/Darren-Bents-F-Word-Spurs-rant.html)

Just today there was a bit of a Twitter mystery when Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, tweeted a random set of letters. Turns out her young son was behind the bizarre Twitter entry but even that made it onto the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8389286.stm)!

Twitter also provides a good opportunity for companies to promote brands, websites to promote themselves, blogs to be plugged (I am a culprit) and has proven very popular with celebrities. Just last week Cheryl Cole posted a Twitpic showing off her wedding to answer suggestions that her marriage to Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole is on the rocks: (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/2738434/Cheryl-Cole-flashes-her-ring-on-Twitter.html)

It seems Twitter has many different uses and can be useful for pretty much anyone, whether you're just using to socialise or using it to promote your business!

Tweet Tweet

Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfilej/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I read in the Sunday Times today that Twitter (http://twitter.com/) is set to add video to it's current social networking service.

'Video-tweeting' as it's being called, would allow users to broadcast their thoughts live via video and could prove very popular especially with regards to the number of celebrities using Twitter. Many celebrities use Twitter and have many followers and fans who follow their updates to see what they are up to. The site has also been used by footballers, such as Darren Bent, who displayed his feelings over his protracted transfer from Tottenham to Sunderland over the summer. Some of Britain's biggest Tweeters include Stephen Fry and the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown.

I've never really used Twitter but I think the introduction of video-tweeting could tempt me to begin using as I think it offers a much more interesting option than just reading updates from friends or celebrities, sportsman or musicians I am interested in.

The site proved very popular when it first came to the forefront of social networking sites and currently has around 54 million users worldwide, every month and is reportedly hoped that the introduction of video-tweeting will keep users interested and perhaps attract more users to the site.