Twitter land rush

Just like the dot com (and farcical dot eu) name registration panic of years ago, I think that there is now set to be a similar land rush, albeit on a much smaller scale, for Twitter usernames.

Last week, 'ryantubridy' entered the Irish Twitterverse, but has been called out as a fake (it's not certain whether or not it is a fake). Recently, George Hook fell victim to the same prank (ironically, it encouraged him to get onto the service and start using it and he has amassed about 1,700 followers in three weeks).

The reason that it is so easy to grab a celebrity or business name on Twitter is that hardly anyone in Ireland is on it. (I'd guess it is still under 30,000 people.)

But when papers like the Independent keep running full page stories on the 'disappearance' of Kenny Egan (twitter.com/kennyegan) and keep quoting his Twitter updates, you know that it's going to attract a lot more attention.

Watch out, too, for tabloids (and especially the Irish Daily Mail) mining Twitter for small pieces of gossip out of the mouths of minor celebrities (eg George Hook saying yesterday that his wife was "the best thing that has ever happened to me" (yep, you'll find that on his stream, Mail lurker, so go for it)).

(The photo, from Joe, is taken from a Young Fine Gael conference, 2007.)

Comments

[Gordon]

Try well under 30,000. Estimates I've heard put the figure at closer to 4,000 (that was in late January). Only a very small cadre of techies - and tech journalists - are converts so far.

[Adrian]

Gordon,

Saw that figure, but I think it's now well out of date.

The amount of attention that Twitter has received in the mainstream media, has, I think, pushed its adoption along a lot since the 4,000 figure was estimated.

But I do think that the majority are still business-related types trying (ultimately) to pimp their wares. Certainly most of the people I follow -- and who follow me -- are (ultimately) motivated by commercial interest.

[Aaron]

Is that such a bad thing? Surely a sign of business actively taking advantage of social networking to mutual benefit, as evangelicised about in numerious books and tech articles for years now?

[Yourtech]

No, it is what it is.

But it's like chatting with a guy who's super-friendly because (and only because) he wants you to buy his product: you know he wouldn't give a shit if he thought you weren't in the market.

Obviously, one doesn't take this personally. But it is a distinction when referring to 'friends' on Twitter or Facebook.

[Aaron]

That's the business of business. Be you a journalist or a businessperson, a majority of the time you get your story/next opportunity because somebody came looking for you to sell you on the idea. I think twitter and such is a good way of filtering this stuff - it's a way to reach out and catch me, without catching me on the phone for 20 minutes...

[Adrian]

Possibly. That's one way of getting a story. And all newspapers use it.

But most good stories don't come from commercial approaches or press releases, in my experience.