Whilst playing with Twitter I tried using Jaiku and I can see straight away why the marketing and PR digerati have taken to Twitter as a comms platform instead. It's because you can use it for stuff it wasn't really invented for.
People like to read what others are doing, and they like to chat. That's why blogging and IM are so huge. And that's why applications that bring those together and make them mobile will be so huge.
Jaiku's good, but it only sends messages out on SMS or on your site. Twitter gives you the choice to send messages on IM as well as SMS or the web, and that's what's proving more addictive. More users, more fans, and more fiddling... companies like CNN, the BBC and Apple are already trying Twitter on for size as a comms tool.
- A message to Jack and Ev at Twitter though, here's what I'd also like it to do:
- Post straight into a blog, like del.icio.us lets you do
- Have feeds from other places streamed into your Twitter, so readers can get your Flickr, MySpace, podcast or blog updates on their Twitter, like Jaiku let's you do
- Have a 'popular' section, like del.icio.us
- Delay messages, like Typepad lets you do, so you can plan ahead or set alerts or alarms
- Allow comments
- Have site stats
- Any more?
These things are what got us hooked on all the other social media stuff first time round and if they were options in Twitter then I can see people using it for everything.
Just one correction... I don't think BBC, CNN or Apple are 'trying Twitter on for size'- I think it's the Twitter users who are fiddling with the news services and not the other way around. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.
Posted by: Graham | January 15, 2007 at 09:42 AM
Graham, you could well be right. It was each page's use of branding that made it look like the companies were doing it.
Stumbled upon your (v good) blog last night btw. Very good reading.
Posted by: Drew B | January 15, 2007 at 01:24 PM