Twitter: It's growing... fast
Microblogging service Twitter now publishes about 50 million tweets a day, or about 600 tweets a second, according to new information from the company.
That figure is amazing when you consider that a year ago, it was under five million per day.
There was some talk about Twitter's traffic dropping, which caused a few to question its staying power.
I put it down to the number of people migrating away from the web-based interface and into standalone Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck or Twhirl, or using it via text or mobile, thus reducing hits on the actual website.
Interestingly, of Twitter's 75 million user accounts, about 40 per cent have never tweeted and about 80 per cent have tweeted fewer than ten times (source).
The web is truly embracing this medium and even traditional luddites are giving it a go. The latest big name to join? The Dalai Lama.
Mainstream media outlets are now using Twitter as a source of information gathering and more frequently referring to it as a credible source, which it certainly can be, but isn't always.
It really goes to show that a good idea can go from nothing to something huge in a matter of months.
I use Twitter every day now. The amount of value you get out of it comes down to who you follow and connect with, and what you put out there.
The bottom line is: Twitter is showing the world it is much more than a geeky fad.
Please feel free to tweet me @lukeappleby too, by the way.
Are you on Twitter, and if so, what's your @username? Who's using it well? Who's doing it all wrong? Who would you like to see join Twitter and engage? Do you think this growth will peak?
» Join Connector on Facebook or Email Luke at connectornz@gmail.com
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Good article Luke. So hard to get accurate figures-- I think you're right--it's more about the influence ie who's using it due to inactive accounts and third party apps @cjlambert
I (@simon_w) tweet a lot. On average since I joined Twitter just after two years ago, I've averaged 15.2 tweets/day, though I was at 33.7 tweets/day for January. Over half of these are replies. (Stats provided by TweetStats, (@tweetstats))
I've noticed that there's a couple of large companies, mainly telcos, that have an active presence on Twitter and are using it to interact with their customers. Though the major benefactors seem to be the smaller businesses as this gives them a great medium to connect with potential clients. Though there are some that are doing it all wrong and are spamming their followers rather than engaging with them.
It appears to be growing too fast - I just logged on to my rarely used account - almost everything I'm trying to do to is bringing up the "Twitter is Over Capacity" page. Do the twitter clients run better than the website itself?
GeoffW - I swear by Tweetdeck.
Twitter is blocked by the firewalls a work. Its percieved as a time and bandwidth waster with no redemming value whatsoever.
I'm a Tweetdeck user (@eranah).
I think @TelecomNZ - despite all their recent problems - has been doing a great job on Twitter in the way it communicates with its customers. Getting direct responses from a large corporate like that is quite something when you consider your chances before Twitter came along.
I think it's inevitable that its growth will peak.. it's more a question of when, right?
I tweet quite a bit. There's a fairly neat NZ community on Twitter, including crafters (like me). I also find it a great way to communicate with businesses, and it's also a great way to communicate with people you'd otherwise not be able to (like when I told Melanie Lynskey how much I loved Show of Hands, and she thanked me). There are also a few businesses running Twitter-only competitions. I'm @sl0u, if anyone would like to join me... :)
I've never tweeted or felt the need to tweet. Is there something wrong with me?
I've got a twitter account but I pretty much never use it. I only go on there to read tweets from my fave celebs, and having an account just makes it easier to follow them!! :P I don't like twitter that much because you can't do much more than tell people what you're up to, which you can do on Facebook better, and Facebook has way more to do on there. Twitter seems very... concentrated on one thing. :P
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I don't Tweet often because I don't have a mobile connection to the internet. But what I do Tweet is worth following @brokensea