Blog of Mr. Tweet

Yep! It is now or will be tomorrow! Works very well with SmartPhones & hectic lives as well as bored teens. Search is better than Google for current events! Faster, stronger!

I think Twitter is going towards the mainstream - I spoke to a shop attendant who used an analogy I use myself in explaining Twitter to those who have never heard of it. "It's like status updates on Facebook". Kind of, but far more powerful. Twitter is going to become a huge force in news, advirtising and communication in general, as we have seen with recent happenings, such as the Mumbai hostage crisis, and the tragic bushfires in Victoria

Twitter has to be followed by any self-respecting Wall Street broker ... like it's the world fastest global mass medium

Twitter is simply awesome!
It is already main stream

I think it will be just as big as Facebook/Myspace, because:

- the brevity
- the ability to update from anywhere
- how excited I am by it
- how many people I've told about it
- how easy (and fast) it is to meet people with the same likes (and dislikes!).

When it becomes an everyday verb

Many avenues not tapped. Amber alerts, crime bulletins, store sales, sports updates to name a few

Great poll. See my comments in my poll response.

Not quite mainstream. Wait till it hits that tipping point and see the volume jump through the roof. Is that a good thing though? Let me know at http://twitter.com/richardbowden

I love twiter, as a disabled person who had isolated, I love meeting my authors and voice actors who I follow and get to know other people who bringing me out of my funk. I like to look at the handmade items that are posted on tweeter tweets from esty sellers.

Twitter will mainstream. It's the new Yahoo! and a must-be place for news media.

IMO twitter won't go mainstream the way FB did, for many reasons.

Abstract :
- twitter usage isn't self explanatory
- twitter helps building a "second circle" network that mainstream user don't use
- twittering demands a synthetic thinking expressed in plain words

More analysis (for thoseof you that can bear reading a French guy in english)

First, most of the "mainstream people" around me don't understand by themsevles the utility of Twitter. FB provides lots of content and third party app that may be seen as useful, but it need'nt those features when it begun.
FB, on its basics principles, was self explanatory => I file infos about me on a page and build connections with peole who did dthe same, based upon actual/past/proposed relationships. And I can maintain a status to tell the world about what I'm doing, no harm done if I don't.
Twitter, for your mainstream user, is nothing but a stand-alone FB status app. And you have to start the networking thing all again. Twitter don't give you any hint of what you could really make out of it. Still twitter keep on asking you the same question "What are you doing?". The newcomer won't give much a thought about answering it because :
1) He's surely already doing it on FB
2)He will think of things like "who will give a sh*t anyway" and "dude, it's kinda of creepy having people I don't know taking interest in it"

Twitter will go mainstream if instead of asking people what they're doing it give them a hint of the tremendous things you can do with answers (that may include pics, link sharing, news blogging, live services...)

Now you've to consider another real twitter function : the conversation. I consider twitter for being the best tool ever to have casual discussions with the outter circles of my social world. Twitter allow me to discuss briefly with people that don't happens to be close friends or coworkers but "connaissances" or specialists from whom I casually take advice while giving some myself. Twitter is a perfect network builder if you can manage a win-win relationship with someone you hardly know.
The first obstacle lies in the capacity of mainstream folks to take interest of building such a network .
Those who will try still take the risk of annoying more experienced users like they did in IRC or boards earlier before, ending in mainstream people being kept aside by advanced users.
Twitter's discussions, in order to be efficient, clearly demand manners and respect of digital etiquette that most of users didn't acquire on boards (despite the many reminders) and wont a fortiori acquire in a 140 signs environnement. I have little faith in people behaving properly enough to feel at ease on twitter

Last but not least, most of the people I follow on twitter use plain words within the 140 signs limitation. That means that most of us are making an effort to write normally under constraint, thinking of how to shrink and twist information to be efficient (it seems that I have failed to do so here, sorry if I'm a bit long). This exercice de style could represent the final barrier for the mainstream user that may end in twittering in involuntary lolspeak to be concise. And, if it wasn't enough you can add the language barrier too (even if may not speak a proper english, I try to tweet in english and use my own language, french, for everything that won't ring a bell to an international follower, especially lately)

Twitter's decision to can SMS updates to the UK, Canadian & Australian markets showed a huge hole in their business plan. With that kind of lack of planning and forethought (witness the alternative SMS providers coming forward) questions must be asked about Twitter's strategic planning and financial management. Since canning UK SMS updates Twitter has become an irrelevance to me. I have writen more on this at http://blog.planetjamie.co.uk/blog/?p=133 and http://blog.planetjamie.co.uk/blog/?p=140

Twitter was mentioned on Brothers & Sisters last Sunday. I was twittering when I heard it!

@Katiecat, @NYCphotos

Twitter will become main stream as soon as main stream media begins to use it more prominently. The plane crash into the Hudson may have been the turning point since the first accounts of it and the first photo of it where posted on Twitter by a regular Twitter user.

Remember when ecommerce was beginning? It didn't become "main-stream" until the news outlets started talking about it and in a positive manner.

What I think is going to happen soon is that most news outlets who already get blogs and have blogs will see Twitter as a way to quick hit with fast happening news events and then expand on it later in an article and/or blog post. Right now, Twitter is just a toy to most ppl but the more people see it being used in an adult worthy manner, the more mainstream it will become. In the eyes of most people, news is as adult worthy as it gets.

The ease of communicating with groups of people at once will make twitter a huge boon for businesses. And once they start offering deals and specials in their tweets full saturation will occur.
I also expect to see individuals use multiple twitter accounts to focus content on specific groups of people, as in a personal account for close friends and family and social account(s) for more broad subjects.

Twitter will have to become important and hold the interest of the average user to become mainstream. Twitter is essentially a magazine that you create on your own by following influential Twitterati and reading the links that they post. Twitter is smart because it is simple.

On the other hand I think that Twitter has opened the floodgates to a new type of medium that could be embraced by large organizations to be implemented into their culture. I wouldn't count on the average user making your free service financially viable.

Shameless Twitter Plug
www.twitter.com/brewery33

Will Twitter go mainstream? I don't know. Will micro-blogging become a commonplace communication tool in some form? I definitely think so. As many more of us work from home, remote locations or whilst travelling, it is replacing the "over the partition" conversations we used to have in offices - and becoming a much more powerful form of them. In the UK we were treated to @stephenfry and @wossy discussing Twitter @wossy's prime-time TV chat show on BBC recently, and most major newspapers have subsequently run articles. So it's profile is increasingly hugely. Personally I don't think it's mainstream yet - but on the other hand given that tweeters tweet about such a huge variety of topics (e.g. @twhisky held an online whisky tasting for Burns night yesterday!) you could hardly call it "niche" either.

I think it will continue to grow. We use it to inform realtors in our company and clients/followers of price reductions, new listings, and sales...and other newsworthy events.

The rate at which Twitter has grown in the last few months, I feel its definitely going to go mainstream. In fact its very close & everyone's talking about it.

Its hard to say if Twitter will become another mainstream soc-net tool. I can see students using it to stay in touch and up to date but I have a hard time seeing how a businessman could make good use of it. In fact, I know of several stories where a PR person has gotten in deep, hot water for Twittering about personal feelings and their client was most peeved about it (the flack made disparaging comments about the client's HQ city).

But then, I'm at Stage 5 of the six stages of Twitter and haven't yet made a business connection via Twitter.

Professional networking has never been easier with Twitter. We've met so many young professionals in our own city that we never would have met otherwise and have been able to grow professional relationships. Just as in any other public sphere... you're an idiot if you "vent" on it.

I think we're on the cusp of being there. Very timely poll, given my blog post on the topic yesterday - Why Average Joe (and Jane) should be Twits too http://tinyurl.com/bz5uwo

I think that Twitter is approaching the tipping point that Malcom Gladwell talks about in his book. I believe by the end of 2009 Twitter will have become mainstream in the UK

Don't think Twitter is in any way mainstream yet... but when delightful papers like the Daily Mail are moaning about how mundane it is, it can only be a matter of time. But that's a good thing...

I think the right question is "How twitter will go mainstream?"

Don't look to user, try to consider global growth :)

Conversation with my 83 year old mother:
"Mom, have you heard of Twitter?"
"Honey, I do read the Times, you know"
"You should try it"
"Oh, I don't know..."
"Mom, that's what you said about the *internet*"

I'd say from all indications that Twitter is already in the mainstream, but mainstream needs to be re-defined.

Because of broad proliferation of Social Networking, fragmentation of traditional media, and new users, like my children aged 11 and 7, finding what interests them easily on the internet and through other media streams, I don't think you can define 'mainstream' as "the average businessman or student starting to use the service".

There are truly multiple mainstreams, and people may move between them or stick solidly in the one in which they find themselves comfortable. Twitter in many ways helps drive this, but I think it will become vastly more widespread, crossing over into several streams.

Gotta be close...when you can say "Are you on Twitter?" and everyone who isn't says "Nope" instead of "What's that?"...then we're mainstream, baby.

When Twitter posts an IPO then it will be mainstream.

The question is less whether it will GO mainstream than whether it will stay mainstream. And it will only stay mainstream if enough people find it worth their time and effort. There's no reason why they shouldn't but equally there's no reason why a different application shouldn't come along and displace Twitter.

Time will tell

@Stuarte

I'm here; twitter is already mainstream.
@kvbuckley

I'll be interested in reading the results of your mainstream poll.

Twitter is growing by up to 10,000 new accounts per day - http://tinyurl.com/73nwe9. It's only a matter of time. Twitter is very unique and offers solutions to everyone. You can make twitter what you want it to be.

It's not necessarily the dent in the global population as much as unique visitors per month/year.

With many business adding a twitter account (not by any means all being used to full advantage within their own business model) I think it's definitely getting there. Rather, Twitter is being positioned as the next mainstream social media outlet.

In due time people.

Twitter definitely isn't 'mainstream' yet, but it's heading in that direction. Evidence: my Mum joined two days ago! However, I don't think it will break through to mainstream adoption until it has been significantly improved to make it more usable, especially for new users. I've almost lost faith in the Twitter company to do this (what are they spending their $22 mill on?) and think it could happen once its bough out by, say, Google.

Tom - @tomjd

Oh come on...it's already there.

It probably will (I think, maybe, who knows...)

Twitter doesn't seem to have made as big inroads in Canada as it has south of the border, but I think it is only a matter of time until it, or at least the concept of micro-blogging, catches on in a big way here.

When Twitter develops a more user friendly interface and more robust privacy controls, it will go mainstream. There is power in Twitter but there is no 10 second explanation for non-users; and the difficulty of finding like minded folks to follow (and be followed by), prevents mainstream usage. While many have signed up for accounts, many of the accounts have little to no activity.

Twitter was referenced on "Brothers and Sisters" a mainstream us show on a major network. That has always been my benchmark for beginning to go mainstream, referenced outside it's normal sphere.

It's hard to say. I am a 20 something who has grown up with the social web. I feel very comfortable there as do many of my peers. However, in discussing twitter with my boyfriend (also in his 20s) he just thinks "it's creepy". There is still that stigma around sharing and building community with people you may not know in person. It is still viewed as odd even by some millennials.

Its not mainstream. It's not intuitive enough for those who are not technically proficient. And it's very nature is pointless to the vast majority of people. At the moment its a way to PR yourself. It needs to have some kind of point to go mainstream.

Still needs expanding. Limited service (on cell phones anyway) in the UK. Still needs refining. Simpler for us old codgers.

Radio and TV in the Netherlands use twitter to interact with their listeners/viewers.. If Twitter is not mainstream already, it will be soon....

I really hope twitter will go mainstream here in sweden too! :D

Yes, it's headed there right now. Websites are pushing it as a way to drive their own traffic, and small businesses are doing the same, which means larger businesses are starting to consider it. As reporters have started using it, they've been mentioning it on air. At this slow but ramping pace, it will be ubiquitous soon enough.

The first time you see an ASCII art tweet, you'll know it's gone mainstream and is in danger of getting "MySpace"ed.

When Twitter is discussed at some length on a Sunday morning TV cooking show "Something for the weekend" it has reached critical mass and is defiantly snowballing into the mainstream world.

I thought it was!

The success of Twitter depends on the mobile equipment people use. Cell phones are on their way out. As more people move to smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) more people will discover Twitter. If smartphone growth explodes, so will Twitter. Twittering via straight SMS is good in a pinch, but is not nearly as compelling as the feature rich Twitter clients available for the iPhone and Blackberry now.

Yes, I believe it will. Look at the growth that has occurred
And more to come.

Heck i can shpw off or watch others do their stuff. mainstream? looks pretty mainstream 2 me. there r all kinds of everyday ppl here

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Twitter is in no way mainstream, 4 million unique visitors in December isn't nearly a dent in the global population of over 6 billion.

woohoo i think its almost mainstream!

When 50-something business men and women are using Twitter, it's mainstream, or almost there.

Currently social media has captured the SME market and is used on a B2B or B2C basis. Much of it requires personal rather than automated reply. As more businesses use the like of Ecademy and Social Median, Twitter will grow and with it will come mainstream use

Twitter is mainstream, or nearly so...but hopefully never in the pejorative MSM way!