I asked my Twitter followers this week if they thought Twitter had hit the mainstream. Of those who replied, all said that in their opinion, it had not. I tend to agree but I can’t help but think Twitter is very much on the cusp of it and I can’t help but wonder, at the end of 2009, will it be as commonplace in conversation as Facebook or mySpace?
According to Hitwise, Twitter use has rocketed over 1000% in the UK in the last year. This is phenomenal growth by anyone’s standards, and helps explains why Twitter has struggled to maintain consistent uptime in the last year as they strive to cope with surging demand. This week, market share also surpassed social media giant Digg for the first time.
Over the last year many, many people have embraced the idea of conveying a succinct nugget of opinion, trivia or irrelevant minutia to friends and strangers alike, in less than 140 characters. These include celebrities Jonathon Ross, Stephen Fry and John Cleese.
Jonathon Ross at his Twitter Account
Ross, in particular, has helped raise the profile of Twitter significantly as he posted while suspended from the BBC for making naughty phone calls on Radio 2. The mainstream media soon picked up on this and suddenly Twitter was being mentioned on TV, radio and newspapers nationwide.
Twitter hit the news once more when the first pictures emerged of the Hudson plane crash in New York on TwitPic, a third party site used to post image to Twitter. The guy who took the pictures was interviewed on many major news outlets worldwide, where he prefaced all questions with an explanation of Twitter.
Twitter was also a constant source of information when the attacks on Gaza started. with nearly all journalists banned from entering the region, many were forced to report what they had read on Twitter rather than what they had seen themselves. Many had also used Twitter to keep abreast of events during the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
This week, the big conversation on Twitter was all about Obama’s Inauguration, with many Tweeting from the actual event.
However, ask 10 people walking down your local high street asking people about Twitter and you’re very likely to be greeted with blank expressions. To become a “household name” takes alot more than just wooing the tech savvy.
Twitter has also not revealed how it intends to monetize. Millions of visitors is all well and good but if they are not making you a return, you’re basically a charity, aren’t you? I can’t help but think whenever they do eventually introduce a system to make money, will this curb the growth?
What do you think? Will Twitter ever make the mainstream?
