Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 p.m. Pacific Standard Time: “just setting up my twttr.”
Those five words cracked the ocean floor and triggered a tsunami.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Dorsey said: “…we came across the word ‘twitter,’ and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information,’ and ‘chirps from birds.’ And that’s exactly what the product was.”
It’s a creative and clever name, but it carries a negative stigma for being irrelevant and insipid. Although a lot of it can be a mind-numbing exercise in too much information (even in 140 characters or less—it only takes 28 to say “I’m out of toilet paper again,” for instance!), a big enough part of Twitter speeds communication, tips brands, and changes the world. It’s like a trade show: Much of it is ego-stroking and back-slapping, but pockets of it are productive.
Twitter’s growth is eye-popping: 200 million users now churn out roughly 350 million tweets every day. The website fields over 1.6 billion search queries per day. If you want to know what’s happening at this moment about virtually anything, visit search.twitter.com and enter the topic. When a tsunami struck the coast of Japan, more people followed the news on Twitter than on TV, where coverage lagged. When it comes to real-time news, the little blue bird flies circles around search engine behemoth Google—or any mainstream media for that matter.
Success Story: @wholefoods
Whole Foods Market joined Twitter on December 4, 2008. They saw the platform’s potential and got in early, and they are reaping the rewards—much like riding a new, breakout stock. What Whole Foods has achieved in 36 months is impressive. As of this writing, they have amassed almost two million followers. Klout, a service that measures online influence, scores them 73 out of 100, which is high. Thousands of people have “listed” Whole Foods on Twitter, which means those people genuinely value what the company has to say (probably because they put out good, relevant content like “How to pick the perfect tomato,” rather than gratuitously marketing to their followers).
Whole Foods leverages the social platform brilliantly for customer service, stating on their profile: “Ready to answer your questions Mon-Fri 9am-5pm CST!” They have tweeted over 16,000 times, sometimes as often as 20 times a day. They offer Twitter-only promotions; they empower individual stores to use the platform; and, they engage media and partners through the platform. If you want to understand how to use Twitter for your business, take a look at: http://twitter.com/wholefoods.
Actionable insight (business): Make sure your organization’s Twitter page has three things: 1) A branded background consistent with the look and feel of your website. 2) A “profile bio” that conveys your brand’s key message point and call to action, and 3) A link to your website. For more advanced users, design a specific social media “landing page” on your website for people from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube so that you can craft custom messaging—and measure traffic and engagement from your social media efforts. This landing page should be consistent with the look and feel of your website, but should have all of your social content in one page (Tweets coming through, Facebook posts and YouTube videos). Those platforms have widgets and feeds that allow you to embed content right into your website. The page should also speak directly to social media users and should present specific offers to them as well. For example, “For our Twitter followers only: Book a tour this week and receive 20% off!” Or, “Upload a video about us to your Facebook page and get a free pound of coffee with your next order!” Be creative. Have fun. Engage your audience. Don’t merely message them.
Actionable insight (personal): Visit www.twitter.com and sign up. It’s free. It’s fast. And, you can send out your first tweet within a couple minutes. Granted, you won’t have any followers right away, but tweet your cards right and you most certainly will. Remember: Twitter is not just a broadcast outlet, it’s a content aggregator. So search for organizations and people from whom you want to hear, visit their pages and click the “follow” button. This will “push” all of that aggregated content into your timeline for you to enjoy whenever you want, and as people receive notifications that you’re following them, they’ll be more likely to check out your page and reciprocate.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website where users can upload, share and view footage that runs the gamut from terrible to transcendent. Individuals like you and me produce most of the content, although media corporations, businesses and other organizations are broadcasting there now, too. Registered users may upload an unlimited number of videos which unregistered users are then free to watch—and, boy, do they! Roughly two billion YouTube videos are viewed every day. That’s billion with a “b.” In November 2006, Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, though it has yet to turn a profit due to its monstrous server demands.
The oft-reported story of YouTube’s creation goes something like this: Co-founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim used to toss around ideas for startups while working together at PayPal. One of those ideas—for a video version of the website “Hot or Not” (quite the muse, that virtual beauty contest!)—came into clearer focus in early 2005, after Hurley and Chen had trouble sharing videos of a dinner party shot at Chen’s apartment in San Francisco. Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, while Hurley said that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party “was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible.”
Regardless of its origins, YouTube has profoundly changed the world we live in. If you have a story to tell, the world will watch. Your videos can spread across the globe and have a real impact on people’s lives. YouTube is arguably the biggest game-changer in social media, for two reasons: 1) Video is highly compelling media; it establishes emotional connections that can immediately impact the way people think and act. 2) Armed with a camera-enabled phone, YouTube grants anyone, anywhere with instant, worldwide distribution. For free. Think about that for a moment. Until just a few years ago, to broadcast video, you needed to be part of a news organization. Now, you are the news organization.
Success Story: “Moving Windmills”
Like any social platform, the inane and profane dominate much of YouTube. But—from “Evolution of Dance” and “Charlie Bit My Finger” to “The Girl Effect” and the only existing film images of Anne Frank—there are millions of inspirational, entertaining and important videos that display the rich tapestry of humanity.
One of my favorite YouTube videos is a less-heralded triumph titled “Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story,” which documents the accomplishments of a young man who lives in Mastala, Malawi, one of the planet’s poorest places. Kamkwamba’s parents did not have enough money to send him to school, but that didn’t deter him from making a difference. “We have enough wind in Malawi,” he says, “and, I was thinking, What can I do with that wind so that we can have something? That’s why I decided to read some books about the windmills.” Kamkwamba built his first windmill when he was 14. He says the villagers “…all thought that maybe I’m going mad and maybe that I am crazy.” But it became clear that Kamkwamba was helping the village, which soon had enough power for radios, wells and more.
“Moving Windmills” has been viewed over 360,000 times. That won’t win any records on YouTube but, judging from the comments, it has won people’s hearts. It’s everything good about YouTube and proves that one person can change the world. After a local newspaper featured Kamkwamba and his video went viral, he was invited to the wind farm in Palm Springs, California. Since then, he has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Bryan Mealer later wrote a book titled The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (William Morrow, 2009), which has a stunning aggregate star review of five out of five on Amazon.com.
Ten years ago, Kamkwamba’s story would have stopped at the local newspaper—but YouTube helped him to inspire