As a dot com veteran of more than a decade, my views on Twitter are somewhat skewed by having seen the mighty felled and the meek inherit the earth. There’s no doubt Twitter is hugely influential, but as I’m sure both experts and laymen alike will testify – the way it’s used raises even more questions about what it actually is. Read More »

Compared to the graph covering the 12 months up until January, that’s astounding growth (as that itself was just a few weeks ago):

To quote Hitwise’s Robin Goad:

Last week Twitter became one of the 100 most visited websites in the UK for the first time. It ranked 91st, placing above online heavyweights such as Expedia UK (96), Gumtree (100), easyJet (101), Digital Spy (103) and Money Supermarket (105).

 

However, the service is likely even more popular than our numbers imply, as we are only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website. If the people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications (such as Twitterrific, Twitterfeed and Tweetdeck) were included, the numbers would be even higher.

 

Now of course, you might think this was down to the Stephen Fry effect, but we couldn’t possibly comment.*

What will be interesting if Twitter really does go mainstream (which until today, I can’t say I really thought was going to happen), is that, unlike Facebook, Twitter seems to exhibit the same sort of power law relationships as blogs do. Which means the bigger it gets, the more effective work we’ll be able to do for our clients through it…

*disclosure: Stephen is a client of ours and we helped get him going on Twitter.

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Okay, this is officially getting out of hand… His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is now on Twitter?

Since joining two, two, days ago, he’s managed to cull 20,000 benevolent followers. Check him out, @ohhdl

Give him time, I’m sure he can topple current Twitter deity Stephen Fry from his throne.
What exactly does the 14^th reincarnation of HH actually tweet about?

Besides odd updates on the HH’s health and location, he actually interacts with a number of his followers.

Posted yesterday, seemingly an explanation for his presence online:

“His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office open and assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience.”

Or, ” Our office is currently overwhelmed by responses from our first day on Twitter. We will make every effort to answer your questions in time.”

Even asking for Twitter advice! “Just darts in the dark we are afraid. Any guidence [sic] or direction is warmly welcomed.”

And my personal favourite: “I’m sure HH will be just as inquisitive about technology as he has been over the past 14 reincarnations.”

Thankfully, not posted by Twitterberry.

Beatific, I guess. I can’t help but feeling a smidgen more enlightened than the vile, wicked philistine I was before lunchtime.

Hey. Pope Benedict XVI, we’re looking at you, get on deck, uh, Tweetdeck that is.