Twitter- Why Has It Succeeded?

Why should Twitter succeed? Facebook and Myspace were already there with many other social networks competing for eyeballs. Throw in social bookmarking sites and we thought that nothing more was needed as far as online networking was concerned. But then came Twitter and changed all the equations. It made everyone rush to see what was happening on twitter and why.

I think that the limit of 140 characters gave a unique appeal to twitter in the beginning. It is like- you use a soap because of its perfume and not because it washes well! Because of the limit in characters, there was no way one could write something that was confusing. Nobody had the time to read long posts on the blogs anyway. So twitter saved all of us from boring and lengthy conversations on blogs. We could open our page and see what was new quickly.

Another major factor is to give importance to not what you write but what you follow. You are interested more in what others are doing and not what you are doing on your page. So with Twitter if you follow somebody, you are immediately told about what the other person wants to say. This results in very quick communication.

Call it luck or whatever but most prominent personalities are tweeting. They are being followed and all followers are interested in knowing about what their favorite celebrity, consultant, author or artist is doing. It also has become a marketing tool. Though it is not a good marketing tool for small businesses yet it may happen soon. Right now if you selling toothbrushes, nobody wants to know about your latest. But if you are offering a bargain, people may get interested. Do you see Twitter affecting ebay? It may happen. Why not sell what you have on your twitter and let people know immediately?

A clean interface, neat design and less clutter make twitter easy to use and this may also be one reason why people are not leaving it.