A response to Tyson Call's Twitter Blog

This post is a response to Tyson Call's thought-provoking article on Twitter. I highly suggest you read that before reading this rebuttal.

Tyson, first off let me say good post. Second (a probably to the surprise of many) let me say that I agree with you to some degree on some of your points. That being said, let me review several of your key arguments that I both agree and disagree with:

1. Trendiness- Twitter is experiencing rapid growth (numbers estimate between 4-5 million active users now) but I disagree that it is becoming a full-blown trend. Yes, new users to the site will eventually plateau- but that is just like everything in the history of man. Twitter is obviously doing something right that people like- a lot of people, myself included. You can call anything a trend on the basis that new people are trying it out just to see what it is about (ex. driving, yoga, pets, drugs, running, eating, drinking, sleeping)

2.It's basically Facebook- No. No it's not. If you want to approach it as a "Status update" then fine, to each their own opinion. Twitter, however, is much more than just saying "Chad wants to go to Rice King right now and hates red." If it was just a status update then Twitter would have kept the "is" in everything you typed- just like Facebook did. Rapid access to raw opinions and information from people that you want to hear from(aka Jeremy Clarkson, Guy Kawasaki, Kevin Rose, friends) is much more than Facebook's "Chad can't wait for Gossip Girl because I love to laugh and feel emotional emotions."

3. People don't care about what you have to say: You actually have a very valid point on this one, but it boils down to how you decided to use Twitter. Many users approach Twitter as a marketing strategy and not a way to simply stay connected. These users (including about 112 of my 148) are people who go on adding blitzes and have set their profile to automatically follow anyone and everyone who adds them. It's annoying and retarded. But I disagree that no one cares. Let me ask you this? Why are you following the people you follow? I am pretty sure the opinions and thoughts of the eight people you are following, Tyson, have some significance to you- or you wouldn't be following them.

4. Twitter will run out of money- Hahahahaha. No. No they won't. Like you said, Twitter has been funded primarily from venture capitalists and other minor sources. Now Tyson, if you were that investor who has already invested $55 million in the company (that's a real stat from wikipedia) you would not let Twitter/your investment go under, plain and simple. Twitter knows they are running on borrowed funds. In fact, here is a direct quote from Twitter's about me site:

"Twitter has many appealing opportunities for generating revenue but we are holding off on implementation for now because we don't want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand which is to create a compelling service and great user experience for millions of people around the world. While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make."

But let's look at the looming scenario of an ad-based revenue future. Remember a little social networking site called Facebook? Yes, the one that started off as a side project of a Harvard student that gained popularity and ran out of investment money? Well it also had to move to an ad-based revenue system and that hasn't slowed it down at all. Like you said, the entire population of Earth is Facebooked. Twitter will not die if/when it resorts to advertisements.

5. Twitter can be duplicated- Of course it can. Everything on the web can. YouTube has countless carbon-copy video hosting sites that act as competition. MySpace, Facebook, Squidoo, Hi5, and a HUGE list of other social networking sites do essentially the exact same things. Wikipedia, being the holy grail of knowledge that it is, even says that Twitter has competition.

6. Miscellaneous points- First and foremost, let me point out that my mad dash for obtaining more followers is warranted on the grounds that if I beat my boss to 200 followers he will take me to lunch. My second argument is your claim that Twitter is only "kind of fun" and only useful for journalists. Wrong. Let me give you my perspective. My fascination with Twitter comes from a public relations standpoint. Twitter gives anyone the unique opportunity for to interact one on one with other people that they would normally never get the opportunity too. Need an example? The company I work for holds not only active, instant customer service through Twitter but also has direct Q&A sessions with our company CEO. Anyone from major companies like Ford to smaller companies like Chegg.com take active rolls in engaging with their public- which to me is the entire point of Twitter.

Blake Bishop sent me a tweet earlier today asking for a rebuttal to your blog, Tyson. Initially I intended on writing a simplified response on your new page but soon found that my thoughts couldn't be contained in a 1500 word box. All summed up, I really think that Twitter is more than just a "status update." While the functionality of literally anything is in the eye of the beholder, I can guarantee that Twitter is much more than the stereotypical social networking site. It has proven itself to be a bold, new way to approach social networking and personal communication- so much in fact that even Facebook's latest release (of which I am currently working on a piece) was modelled heavy after.

So there you have it. If anyone made it this far in what is now the longest blog post I have ever done, I am sorry... you can't have 15 minutes of your life back.

- Chad