Twitter historians (oxymoron?) may look back at 9:11 a.m. on April 17, 2009, as the day Twitter died.
Because that’s when Oprah Winfrey sent her first “Tweet.” It was innocuous: “HI TWITTERS. THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY.” But since that message on Friday, she now has more than 400,000 followers (25,000 more than when I started writing this post Monday).
It has the Twittersphere reeling. The “old guard” early adopters are now worried that their sacred forum has been tainted by stay-at-home moms swapping recipes and arranging car pool schedules. So what?
This is social media. And isn’t social media about society? Twitter is just another tool and tools are made to be used. Not everyone uses a tool the same way. But can a tool be used wrongly if it gets the results that you, the user, are looking for?
Now the clubhouse has to make room for more members. Remember though, no one is making you follow Oprah. Or Ashton. Or Shaq. Or even Barbara Walters who started Tweeting Monday.
You can’t expect to keep all the goodies to yourself. It’s social media. Practice what you preach.
(Photo by Janet Mayer)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Agreed. However, my personal beef is not the stay-at-home moms or the influx of celebrities expected to join Twitter following Oprah’s lead – if you can call it that…
What troubles me is the fact that it took this particular Ashton Kutcher stunt for mainstream media, personified by Oprah, to pay attention to Twitter – which most of us reading this blog discovered a while ago and have a huge crush on for very specific and, yes, “early adapter” type reasons. I umm… ahem… blogged about this here: http://andinarvaez.wordpress.com and albeit I’m not in total disagreement I do, for all intended purposes, disagree.
I’m not going to drink the Oprah kool-aid. I don’t watch her show, I don’t like her, I don’t like her ‘new religion’. She will have absolutely no effect on how I use Twitter. The ones I follow understand how Twitter is used more than myself. I will not follow perpetual activity updaters, unless they’re personal friends, it’s too awkward to un-follow them. I don’t think Twitter has ‘jumped the shark’, it’s only beginning.
Bill, thanks for the message. And thanks for sticking with Twitter, even though Oprah’s involvement might be like my mom friending me on Facebook. OK, it’s not that bad.
Here are the latest numbers regarding the Oprah effect on Twitter. http://mashable.com/2009/04/21/oprah-impact-on-twitter/
Well I am glad to see everyone’s point of view. Yes, you don’t have to follow Oprah, Ashton, or Obama. Is it being used wrong? Maybe, but that’s my opinion. It’s part of Twitter’s growing pains. I don’t like anyone taking advantage of the small guy.
I have always been one to cheer for the underdog. Oprah is wonderful I am sure… but personally I think she is full of herself and won’t give or do anything without having media close by. Same with any of these “stars” that won’t breath without paparazzi’s around or promote themselves as social media experts. Yes, they are stars and yes the will be followed because of who they are. I know a lot of wonderful people that do way more good than Oprah, Seth, Kawasaki you just don’t hear about them.
So basically, Twitter will eventually find it’s niche in our Social media consciousness but take it from me I hate to burst your bubble… but I’m about to burst your bubble. Twitter ain’t all that. However – did you know that less than 10% of American Internet users are actually on Twitter? So get back to me when it’s the only Social Media tool around.