Twitter-mania

Feb 13, 2009 by dirkthecow

Only three weeks ago (22 Jan), I posted this, after metrics firm Hitwise released some Twitter stats:

“No doubt, Twitter’s growth is extremely impressive and shows no signs of slowing down. And it’s something brands should be increasingly paying attention to, especially as Hitwise’s figures show that Twitter brings a lot of traffic to websites (news sites in particular).

“Yet in the UK it’s currently still only no.23 in social networks, with Facebook remaining the run-away leader, accounting for just under 5% of all web traffic at Christmas.”

And what’s happened in the past three weeks? Again, according to Hitwise, it’s risen from the 23rd most popular social network in the UK to number seven, just behind the “Polish Facebook”, Nasza-Klasa. Twitter now has more UK web traffic than the likes of the budget airline easyJet (the SouthWest Airlines of the UK), Expedia and Gumtree.

Claudine Beaumont of the Daily Telegraph has a good summary about why this is so – a stack of celebrities coming on board has caused it’s UK traffic to treble since the start of the year.

Image – Monstro

Update – Fellow Cow Russell sent this to me with the email subject line ‘Twitter – the backlash starts.”

Basically, the industry journal The Register has this to say about the service’s growing popularity: “Writing about Twitter is the journalistic equivalent of eating the fluff from your navel. The posh papers love it. Menopausal middle-aged hacks love it. The BBC is obsessed with it.”

Oh nos! The great unwashed are now taking part!

There’s also a fairly mean spirited comment about Twestival, a global event that took place last night to raise money for charity. The writer claims, “$4,000 isn’t going to save many lives.” Well, that depends. I am guessing that it will save some, and one is good enough for me.

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