COMMENTS
This is interesting but would be genuinely more so in a world context. How did Twitter spread in Europe, the Middle East, Africa? What about war and disaster zones, where it's been a major communication force?
Hunh--kinda lines up with the unemployment maps for the same years...so, not sure it's all "marketing" chatter, yanno?
I think another important sustaining factor were early Web2.0 companies that were first in seeing the value of the twitter service as a communication tool and were spreading the service to highly connected communities.
http://gigaom.com/2007/01/22/twitter-goes-corporate/
Curious, wasn't Jack the first user? He sent the first Tweet, if I remember correctly: http://twitter.com/jack/status/20
Jack's user ID is also 13, but you have rayreadyray as user 13?
Interesting facts - certainly from my perspective in B2B marketing, it was driven by activity amongst the the thought leaders in the business networking sites - mainly as a marketing tool.
Yet more evidence that Americans like to ignore the first W in WWW.
I think you're right to focus on the SXSW influence. I joined in Jan. 2007, mainly to keep in touch with others I'd met at a previous conference, people from FL, CO, and NC. And when I discovered I could see what leaders in the industry were doing on a daily basis, I was hooked.
They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" and that's certainly true here. OpenHeatMap appears to be a powerful communicator of growth patterns. I wonder if going forward if this pattern will repeat itself as other social media emerge and the world continues to flatten. Another interesting point was likening Twitter to Facebook growth - I believe LinkedIn may have had a similar pattern, at least with its origin among thought leaders.
What are the current trends for twitter growth? Is there sign of decline? Is there an up to date article charting ups and downs of social media tools?
Thanks
Interesting that I first got on the service in November, 2006. I was about the 13,000th user, so this all rings true to me. I got into it after hearing about it from all the folks you list above, but mostly because @ekai showed it to me and kept bugging me to get onto it.
That was fun! Thanks for an amazing recap...so glad I found TweetingSince.com as well :-)
Stay Blogging My Friends!
@TheRECoach
Can anyone figure out how to prevent Twitter from getting gamed. My suggestion is to put a stop to follower vanity and concentrate on the tweet itself. In a sense, we need to Follow Concepts. If some tweet is about that Concept, it appears in the timeline. Twitter can continue to have Accounts to follow, but also add Concepts to follow. Saved Searches just don't cut it because here the Concepts are Keywords. Searching keywords "Hate ebooks" would show results but might not bring together the group of people who hate ebooks which a Concept might be able to. Or better still, users subscribed to a Concept should have full two-way communication i.e everyone follows everyone else. Then this group can keep fragmenting into smaller groups based on user blocking. If A blocks B, then A remains in group ACD which B remains in group ABCD.
It's odd that you focused on only one country. The internet reaches across the entire globe....and that includes Twitter.
So to look only at America is not realistic or effective in understanding how Twitter spread. Many of those users in America could have been encouraged/introduced to Twitter from a website or email originating in another country.
I have noticed that when certain people complain about Americans not taking the rest of the world into account and in effect accuse Americans of acting like they are at the center of the universe, it's because those people already
know that they themselves are at the center of the universe. In a sense, they are right; there can only be
one center of the universe.
i like this bog , i really really gave input from your posting
I am very interested in geography at your blog, it's just that until now I hope I will be better
I didn't "accuse Americans of acting like they are at the center of the universe" as you put it.
I simply pointed out that looking at only a part of the world is an ineffective method of determining how and where Twitter spread across the globe, which is the whole point of this article.
The figures stated in this article, eg: 150 000, is a global number of users but then the writer then goes on to look at an isolated region in an effort to determine how that initial number of vital users came about.
If the writer wanted to look only at the spread of Twitter in America then why use global figures?
I'd say that the SXSW introduction to so many early adopters and influencers like me helped spread it's growth. We came from all over to SXSW that year and took Twitter back home with us. We told friends, colleagues and clients. Some of us even gave our unborn children Twitter accounts, sucking non-tech friends and family into the service.
"If the writer wanted to look only at the spread of Twitter in America then why use global figures?"
I know your type. Your only objection is with the word "America" in that sentence.
The article is about how twitter spread in the US before going global. You obviously think others outside the US somehow helped spread twitter around the world, including the US itself. You probably think the same way about the Internet itself.
Like I said, I know your type.
Am beginning to research Twitter (and other social media) use in Jamaica. Your blog is interesting but wanted more about the rest of the world. Having said that, we realize the challenges so hey, I understand.
You mean twitter is important?
;)
Jonathan from Spritzophrenia
I have a correction. Not to take anything away from Paul Terry Walhus, but @manton 's twitter id is 897. So I'd say he was the first twitter user in Austin.