Forum Moderators: rogerd
When the service first appeared a couple of years ago, its appeal seemed largely limited to narcissists who wanted to let everybody know what they were doing in real time. But, like blogs and social-networking sites, Twitter is starting to cross into the mainstream, as a wide range of people find interesting uses for the brief notes.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, says the company is encouraged that businesses are starting to take to the service. "Looking at the value commercial entities are getting out of Twitter could help us build a sustainable company," he says, noting that Twitter might charge for premium services in the future.
Premium Services
With the free use of the API, I hope they have something up their sleeve that others haven't already capitalized on. I'd really like to see them put more time and effort into the web based interface at which time I might consider a Premium Membership whatever that may entail. Not everyone is going to think the same way I do though and there are all sorts of upcoming contenders ready to take the fallout.
I've found that SM users are typically loyal to one platform. Once that platform changes and/or no longer meets their needs, they move to another. It's like the migration of birds from the North to the South. The flock and/or herds are going to go where the weather is warmer and the pastures are greener. ;)
I think the mistake they made was allowing the free use of their API. There are all sorts of applications out there that have generated revenue on the coattails of Twitter.
Whatever they do, it needs to be done swiftly. The momentum is picking up and Twitter is now a common "household" name amongst many. One look at who is using Twitter should give you an idea of just how popular it has become.
And please, don't sell out to Google, please? Let us have a little bit of privacy. ;)
twit-->$$
I'm still working on the value portion of the equation as well.
Twitter is now a common "household" name
Um, no.
Seems worthless.
Of course our feeds are private and we do not follow anybody else : this is pure business feed between two co-workers. But even for small things like "Out to get a beer", followed by "Back, working on setup for project X" are usefull bits of info to know.
Um, no.
Hmmm, when you are sitting there watching the major news outlets and they are asking you to follow them on Twitter, it has become a household name to me. ;)
Rachel Maddow (@Maddow) uses Twitter quite effectively. She even had a segment on the Twitter Terrorism thing the other night.
Seems worthless. Good as a novelty, but as a business model?
I thought so too until some meathead convinced me to join on 2008-07-24. I haven't looked back since. Twitter was instrumental in helping me obtain a Newsweek home page reference and a Financial Times reference. We sold out of product yesterday. Site only live for 30 days. Ranks #1 out of 6,000,000+ for its targeted generic phrase too.
Twitter Rocks!
I would like to hear more about your experience. Do you have a lot of followers?
Everytime I give twitter a try it just seems like an incestuous pool od SEO's following each other.
In my observations I just don't see normal people using twitter.
Granted, if the question at hand is "using Twitter for SEO purpose", then, it's an totally different matter.
It probably depends on what your sites are about and the results won't be major. You have to be willing to chit chat a bit. Just putting up ads won't work, people either won't follow you or they'll drop you when they discover you are just in it to advertise.
