Micro blogging sites such as Tumbir, Plurk, Twitter and PingGadget et al, are never out of the news as they have become self fulfilling prophesies or virtual circles of self promotion, the more messages, the more publicity. Sure the stars seem to have millions following their every utterance but then movie stars and celebrities have a fan base whether they tweet or not. What is more interesting is the need for everyday people looking for their own fans to listen to them who seem intent on collecting them as listeners or just statistics.
As Seth Godin so succinctly points out, it's not whether you have a 100,000 followers, it's whether anyone is listening to you? From a personal view it's surely more important to have a 1000 people listening to you than 100,000 not?
I get the instant news value and the sometimes successful marketing micro blogs by such companies as Zappos, Jetblue and Bestbuy and so does Facebook and Google who look at that avenue as a revenue stream in the making. Hence their current struggle to acquire Twitter.
What is more interesting to understand is the allure it has for Joe Citizen. Obviously the need to be heard is never going to wear off but who we hear from is another matter. So as mobile usage continues to grow, there seems a never ending supply of first time users looking for an audience. The soap boxes in Hyde Park come to mind and the perception of someone ranting on about their opinion is never far from the truth. Then of course there is the inanity found in the minutiae of daily life that so many seem to think important.
Just as there are only a few soap boxes, the statistics for Twitter show that only 21% of users are active on the site and that 22.5% of users are responsible for 90% of all tweets. Out of the top 20 global twitter sites, only two are inherently news worthy in Barack Obama at number 4 and CNN breaking news at number 20. All the rest pertain to the wardrobe allure of Lady Gaga at number 1 with over 8 million followers and the hairstyle aesthetics of Justin Bieber at number 2 with over 7.5 million followers, along with publicity highlights from celebrity luminaries Britney Spears number 3, Kim Kardashian number 5 and Ashton Kutcher at number 6. So from all of that, out of the 10 people following me on twitter only 2 are actually listening and one of those is my mother, so thank you to that one other person interested in my ramblings.
While celebrity chit chat can be noteworthy distractions from our daily lives is this showing the true value of micro blogging? Still it's hard to argue against the numbers and maybe we really do live our lives vicariously through 140 character celebrity news bytes. Yet sentiment seems to indicate the number of people listening drop off significantly after the first couple of tweets from their favourite celebrity, so where does that leave your Average Joe rabbitting on about the party he is attending tonight?
If no one is listening then why are Facebook and Google so intent on acquiring Twitter and its ilk? We come back to maths and the fact that there will always be a significant number on the phone and that not all information has to be relevant to all.
So if Facebook is successful in the acquisition of Twitter we can look forward to more Gaga'isms along with the tonsorial eloquence of the Bieber. Google may not be the best alternative for something like Twitter either, so my best case scenario would be for one of the global news conglomerates to acquire the appropriate micro blogging site and then we would really be up to date.
I look forward to that day, no matter how fascinating the Bieber's next hairstyle may be.
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