While I did not get to see the broadcast live the numerous Retweets I saw in my Twitter stream this morning convinced me that this was indeed a fairly monumental event.
When you think about it twitter hasn't been around for all that long. Infact it will be just 3 years old come March. It's popularity on the other hand has been skyrocketing. I've even seen figures saying that its #3 in the social media line up just behind facebook and myspace.
The ABC interview attempts to tackle one of the most difficult issues with Twitter. Getting people that don't use the service to understand exactly what Twitter is all about. I noticed that even the creators of Twitter have a bit of difficulty explaining exactly what the service is.
For me its gotten to the point that I almost run away from the question "What is Twitter?" The real problem with this question in my mind is that the answer is so large that I might actually bore the indidual by answering their question. Whenever possible I try to send them a link to the Twitter explanation video created by The Common Craft Show but while that does a great job of explaining the basics it still doesn't explain everything that twitter has become to me.
When I tell a non Twitter user that I'm on twitter all day they instantly think that I've got too much time on my hands which is obviously completely ridiculous. At any given time I've got 4-6 house remodels taking place not to mention all the other duties that go along with being a Realtor such as showing houses and listing new houses on the MLS.
What I see happening to Twitter is exactly what I've seen happen to Facebook. Back when I joined Facebook it was still restricted to college students. Back then I never thought that facebook would be on the news or that people my parents age would be joining the service. Boy have things changed. Nowadays employers are checking on their employees facebook profiles.
I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't realy matter if you understand Twitter or any of this social media stuff right now, but it will. At some point I think our customers are going to expect us to be on these networks.
The ABC News Twitter Interview
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