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How a 5-Year Old Has Changed the Social Media World Forever

byDouglas Ian
March 21, 2011
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Five years ago, a micro-blogging site with 140 character messages was ridiculed for its unusual approach to social media. Most Internet experts believed Twitter was an experimental idea destined for failure.  On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet and the rest as they say is history.

And now five years since then, it’s fair to say Twitter has completely changed the social media world forever. Whether its marketing and advertising for businesses, celebrities connecting with their fans, nations using it as a launch pad for revolutions or disaster management in wake of unfortunate calamities such as Japan and Haiti earthquakes, Twitter has seen it all.

Being amongst its privileged adopters, I’m proud to have been a part of Twitter’s fabulous journey. Happy 5th Birthday Twitter – we’re blessed to have you!

It’s all about Tweets

Not many people believed that you can do a lot with 140 characters. Therefore, it’s understandable that it took Twitter three years, two months and one day for Twitter to rack up its first billion tweets. To put things in perspective, Twitter now witnesses nearly a billion tweets each week.

The average number of tweets sent per day was 50 million one year ago. Last month, the average was a very impressive 140 million. Twitter recorded the highest TPS value (Tweets per Second) of 6,939 after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day. Ironical as it is, the country that used Twitter to send New Year’s greetings few months back is now using it as a desperate means to seek help and help people keep in touch with their loved ones.

Scorching Growth

The growth in number of Twitter users has been equally impressive. In March alone, Twitter has added 572,000 new subscribers. Last month, Twitter witnessed nearly 460,000 new users’ sign up every day. While those figures are no match for Facebook, they are still mighty impressive.

Why I love Twitter?

Twitter is a fantastic platform for open yet meaningful communication. It’s a great place to speak and an even better place to listen to what others have to say. Surely, it’s not as glamorous as Facebook, but then that doesn’t undermine its value in anyway.

Whether it’s news, marketing, communication or supporting the human cause, Twitter does justice to one and all.

Ottawa Citizen mentions “At five years old, Twitter is still a child full of promise and dreams of changing the world for the better.” and I couldn’t agree more on that. There’s no denying the last five years have been fun. At the same time, I firmly believe the best of Twitter is yet to come.

Please join me in wishing Twitter a Happy 5th Birthday! Do you love Twitter? If so, why? Please share your opinion by leaving a comment below this post.

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Douglas Ian
Douglas Ian is the Chief Editor of Smedio Magazine, Bestselling Author, Strategist, Speaker, and Trainer, who helps businesses grow their revenue through specialized business optimization strategies.
38 comments

  1. I am relatively new to Twitter, indeed happy birthday, I just hope they will find a way to effectively monetizing it without changing its intrinsic value. It’s very quick to switch from being on the verge of success to fall to the brink of failure, Digg docet.

    1. Monetization continues to be Twitter’s forefront challenge but I must admit I admire their discipline and virtue of being pragmatic about the user/advertising relationship on the platform. The changes we’ve seen thus far of Twitter is not even close to the future it sees of it self but a precursor to what will eventually be its future – Facebook/Google style advertising.

      Twitter started with a no-ad platform and for it to suddenly integrate ads would have put a lot of people off. With the introduction of its already fully acceptable sponsored tweets, it will not be unacceptable by most if the next phase of its advertising platform is released in the nearest future. We all now know that there’s some advertising on the platform, as compared to what it was in the past when there was no advertising.

      As long as Twitter continues to remain relevant, its future is bright as long as they don’t rest on their laurels.

      1. I don’t know, do you honestly see in ads the real and sustainable revenue model for a service like Twitter?
        I understand it’s probably too easy to say from my end, without a real alternative in mind, but yeah, I am not sure at all.

        1. Gabriele, I don’t see them implementing in-line ad model, if they are smart. What I see feasible and could easily be implemented would be an ad system similar to that of Facebook/Google (display ads). They already have the real estate to implement that. Go under your “Home”, “Profile”, etc, right panes for example, after the top-third of the screen, they have this empty real estate that obviously would be used for ads in the future.

          As long as the ads don’t interrupt the users everyday communication/use of twitter, yes there’ll be an uproar at the beginning, users will be ok with it in the long run. If we find Twitter useful and we want them to be around much more longer, IMO, they should be able to monetize the platform.

          1. True that, as you say, “As long as the ads don’t interrupt the users everyday communication/use of twitter”. They are not stupid, they know what makes or destroy a platform like Twitter very well, so I have full trust they will find a way, I am just curious to see the reaction to any decision they will take.

  2. I love twitter for its innovation of global communication, but the fact remains, it still filters towards general consensus and opinions by main stream media, which to me is a bit of a disappointment.

    i hope more people grow balls and more people open their eyes.

    1. IMO, the use and sense of Twitter is usually defined by the user and not Twitter. The information you received and the definition of those information is based on the crowd you choose to get your information from.

      From a regulatory perspective, I would understand what you’re saying, just like any other law abiding citizen, which Twitter as a corporation is, it does it best to stay within the frame work of the regulatory bodies it operates under. In that sense, “it still filters towards general consensus…”. It’s not disappointing, it called staying alive!

  3. For a very long time I didn’t do Twitter because I wasn’t sure what it was all about. I would get a message that “so-and-so” was following me on Twitter. ??? What, I thought? What IS Twitter and HOW do they follow me? Who are these people? But once I got on and started doing it…I WAS HOOKED! I love the ease of Tweetdeck and being able to see Facebook feeds and Twitter and personalize the columns into my interests all on one page. This is the very BEST thing that has happened to the Internet. You don’t need to watch cable news to get the latest…in fact the latest news hits Twitter BEFORE they edit and broadcast “breaking” news. HAPPIEST of “Birthdays” to Twitter and thank you Mark Zuckerberg and others who made this most valuable media all possible!!!
    @SweetPaulaDee (o:

  5. I didn’t really think Twitter was anything special at first…
    I made my account last year, and didn’t use it for a long time, but now I am a Twitter Fanatic.
    My friends judge me for it sometimes, but it’s something I like to do and it keeps me updated in terms of what’s going on on this planet that we call home. 🙂

  6. Dude. Proofread. Geez.

    I feel like I’m reading a report written by a 5th grader. You’re a professional blogger???

  8. Signed up for Twitter on April 15th, 2007. It took me years to figure it out. First, because nobody used it. Then when folks finally did start using it, I was not into it that much. Gradually, others started using it and I started using it more. Then I figured out that I could get info on things I was interested in quickly using Twitter if I followed the right folks. That was my ah-ha moment. Now it is my rapid fire, choice source of information. This is how I found out about the Japan earthquakes and Tsunami. Hours before any other source. Twitter rocks! I don’t tweet too much myself. In the 4 years I’ve been on, I’m only at 1400 tweets. I have few tweeps. In general, I’m a quiet person and don’t like to hear myself talk. I guess that translates over to twitter too. I figure if I think it, it has got to be about worthless as that is what life has taught me, time and time again. So I’m basically a thought consumer but have little to offer.

  9. Pingback: On Twitter You Can Find Nearly Anything

  10. I love Twitter. It has changed social media and my life! My most recent blog post was about how it felt so strange at first to learn this new language and now it feels so right!

    Thanks for the great article, Douglas!

  12. I have become such a Twitter fanatic that my iPhone goes everywhere I go, day and night- 24-7. I lay in bed and fall asleep going thru Twitter. It is my “constant companion”

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