Twitter Reflection
May 17, 2009
Prior to researching Twitter, I generally thought of it as a way to socialize personally and professionally, but I learned there is much more to the service, and society is just scratching the service of potential uses.
According to The Wall Street Journal Article Twitter Goes Mainstream, Twitter has grown beyond the narcissistic variety of posts to being utilized by a growing number of business and professionals for a variety of reasons. According to Twitter, the active user base has grown seven fold from August 2007 to August 2008. comScore Inc. states the number of unique visitors has grown from 282,000 to more than a million in the same time period.
Many are flocking to the microblogging service for self-promotion in lieu of a customary blog. Others use it to instantly track targeted news events or conference updates. Companies not only use it for promoting their products or services. They use it to humanize their companies by engaging customers and prospects. They monitor comments concerning their company, competitors and industry in general. This is true for large and small companies alike. J.R. Cohen of CoffeeGroundz credits Twitter for doubling its clientele. Brad Nelson of Starbucks follows 143,040 individuals and has 181,377 followers.
It can be a great research tool. The blog entry The Value of Twitter As Compared To Google gives a good analogy of Google and Twitter where “real people can give better recommendations and explanations that an automated query on Google”. How to Demo Twitter and Twitter for Academia are two of the most interesting articles I read because they give concrete examples of Twitters power and reach. Twitter has its challenges including user retention of a small but rapidly growing user base mainly due to the lack of understanding of the service, but without question, it will thrive and provide a valued service to the many that understand how to leverage the knowledge of its user base.
The following blogs and articles influenced this blog entry. See my delicious account for additional articles I read for this reflection.
