My 3rd Twitter Anniversary

Yesterday,  was my third anniversary as a Twitter user.What a weird strange trip it has been.

When I started on Aug. 8, 2007, the estimates varied greatly as to how many people were using it from a low of 340,000 to as many as 4 million, but no one really believed it could be that high. thirty-six months later, the high estimates are topping 140 million and few people doubt its accuracy.

In August 2007,the big names in Twitterville were neighborhood heroes like Leo LaPorte, Veronica Belmont and Robert Scoble. These name remain prominent, but if you consider followers an important milestone, all three of them have been dwarfed by assorted celebrities from Hollywood and sports, many of them finding Twitterville a useful way to prolong fading careers.

Three years ago, a great deal of the content was about shiny things, the newest in new technology, but mostly we talked about Twitter and it’s potential for business and friendship and world peace. Occasionally, we discussed where we were and what we had for lunch.

Now we use Twitter to talk less about Twitter itself and more about anything we want to discuss. Three years ago, most business and political people disdained Twitter and now they embrace it. Being on Twitter  is essential to professionals and consultants today as being in the Yellow Pages was twenty years ago.

I don’t love all these changes, but I expected them. I could even get boastful and say that I predicted some of them. But I really had no idea that these changes would come so fast.

I  still find conversations to enjoy. Scoble is still there pumping out more Shiny Thing news than I can digest. But now there are millions of people discussing thousands of topics on all sorts of subjects I don’t care about.

Businesses coming into Twitter seem to have strayed from the conversational capabilities that make Twitter so special, reverting back to the broadcasting of messages, a method that failed so badly in other channels, that it created the opportunity that has become Twitter.

I keep thinking of the roots of television. General Sarnoff at NBC wanted to provide opera and Shakespeare for the masses. Around the corner Stanton and Paley pushed sitcoms and got rich selling cigarette and beer through ads.

I think Twitter is now a crossroads. It can revolutionize the access people have to each other. It can fundamentally change how news is gathered and distributed. It can make quality customer service scalable. It can let newcomers to the marketplace be familiar with people in a company before they buy or apply.

Or it can become another channel down which messages are jammed by people who really don’t care what you think.

I really don’t know how it will come out. I can only hope.