Throughout 2008, Twitter made headlines almost daily around the world. What was started as a small social networking website has, today, grown into one of the largest sites on the Web with a user base exceeding several million individuals and businesses.
The Twitter system relies on each of its users to continuously contribute 140 character updates onto their profiles. These updates include posts about travels, meetings, parties, and even random thoughts. Users then have the ability to follow each other. This allows a profile to aggregate several different user profiles into a chronologically ordered list of updates. To some this may seem like a web 2.0 form of stalking.
The top individual Twitter users (ranked by number of followers) include movie and television stars, such as Ashton Kutcher (1.7 million followers) and Ellen DeGeneres (1.5 million followers). These, however, may not be the most interesting Twitter users online. For businesspeople, Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com is one of the more interesting people to follow. With over 600,000 followers, he posts humorous messages about his various business meetings and travels.
In addition to individual users, Twitter has successfully attracted a wide range of businesses to use its system. Airlines, such as American and JetBlue, electric vehicle companies, including Tesla and Xtreme Green Products, and many others have begun using Twitter as a way to connect with customers.
While Twitter continues to experience explosive growth, there has been less impressive loyalty among its user base. Mashable recently reported that 60% of Twitter users quit after the first month. This may end up putting Twitter in a precarious situation and ultimately make them reliant on pop culture icons to propel their growth forward.
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