Think again! Try to use some desk research. It’s not hard to find the amazing facts about Twitter.
Let’s have a look at http://twittercounter.com/pages/100
Lady Gaga was the most followed on Twitter. At the moment it’s Justin Bieber.
Who – Justin Bieber
Right now Justin Bieber is the most popular guy on Twitter. But – is it really Justin’s just tweeping his days away. His fingers must glow like red hot iron on the phone. Allegedly he’s the author of not less than some 20.000+ tweeps.
That’s an amazing number of tweeps – especially if you compare to the tweeps of Lady Gaga. She tweeped around 2500 times or so.
Kipling’s “six honest serving men”
From the poem “Six Honest Serving Men” from “The Elephant’s Child” you can learn how to analyze communication:
I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small—
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends’em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes—
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
What – Twitter
So where are we? Twitter is a micro blog. You can post max 140 characters. That’s it. You can also post images, video or sound. Twitter is for short statements. It sounds boring. But professional authors and artists can reach out to a big audience.
When – anytime
Justin can tweep anytime – at least if he’s in reach of the internet somehow. He might use a browser – or his smartphone. Whatever device he prefers there might be some app where he can write his updates.
An so he did. 20.000+ times. That’s a lot of micro blogging.
Why – the most important question!
The most important question is: “Why?”. Do you really think that this is just Mr. Bieber having fun? When I click send around 60 persons will receive my tweep. When Justin does the same thing
33.728.223
can read his tweeps. That’s a lot of readers.
To me Twitter may be a kind of social media. But when you reach out to millions of readers it’s not a passtime any more. It’s hardly a hobby. So for people like Justin Bieber Twitter is a mass media channel.
In comes Laswell’s classic communication model:
- Who – Justin Bieber
- Says what – “the New Album
#BELIEVEacoustic is available WORLDWIDE NOW –http://smarturl.it/JBBelieveAcoustic …“ - In what channel – Twitter
- To whom – 33.728.223 followers
- With what effect – guess what: they might just buy the album
Who is the author?
It could be Justin. At least some of the time. But the page looks strangely welldesigned. It’s nice in an almost boring way. Here it is relevant to ask yourself – is the page really made by Justin – or do you think that a ghostwriter is afoot? Are the pictures really made by Justin?
- Did Justin write all of the text, some of it or nothing whatsoever?
- Can Justin really read the tweeps from the 123.772 persons he follows?
- Will this page even pass a Turing test? (Could we suspect robotic activities here?)
Perhaps part of the site is made by professionals. Perhaps all of it. If somebody was payed to help Justin they did a good job if you can take the number of followers as a sign of such a thing. Have a good look at the site.
Have a good look at this – and the other 100 most poplar Twitter sites. Asking yourself who the sender really is might light a candle. So from the point of view of the multimedia programme you can say, that:
- Twitter is business
- Twitter is communication
- Twitter is webdesign
- Twitter is interaction