Mr Tweet, the Twitter friend recommendation service, has released a study about why Twitter is going mainstream.
According to its survey, 69% of respondents think the micro-blogging platform will shed its early adopter service. Now that's 69% of respondents who are Twitter users, and so would have more of an incentive to talk it up.
What's more interesting are Mr Tweet's seven reasons why this prediction will come to pass. I'm not so sure about three, but the other four seem to make sense:
The volume of news coverage about it. Twitter has had a huge amount of publicity, but this is no guarantee of success. According to a report we did for a client which was looking into it, from Jan - June 2007 the virtual world Second Life had 500+ media mentions in the UK alone. And currently it has a little over 500,000 regular users worldwide ...
Stunning growth momentum. Growth is huge, but again in the UK it's 'only' the 23rd most popular social network. That growth is from a very low starting point
Brands are engaged. Again as they were in Second Life, only to leave again in a hurry when their investment didn't pay off. Fortunately for Twitter there is no real investment needed save someone's time.
But I do agree with:
"One simple tool, infinite uses." There are countless ways you can use Twitter to connect and share information, it's an enormously useful service
Facebook status updates on steroids. Twitter takes one of the core features of Facebook (the ability to tell the world what you are doing), and magnifies them through the use of countless applications that have been developed by third parties.
A passionate, intelligent user base that spreads the word.
The need to feel connected in a way that other networks can't deliver. Facebook is still a way to connect with friends. Twitter is a way to make "friends" (and the "" is deliberate) - services like Mr Tweet actively encourage you to follow people you might not necessarily know.
As I've said before, I'd never expect Twitter to become the new Facebook. Just from my own personal observations, from all the people I know who have started accounts but never used them, you need to be fairly committed. But then again, raw numbers aren't everything.
Instead it's the type of user that makes Twitter attractive, and not the numbers. In traditional media, plenty of outlets thrive based on the perceived quality rather than quantity of their viewers, and so it may well be here.
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