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M$2 June 20, 2009 12:08 PM

How did Twitter become popular? Can anyone help me source this?

On the page I manage, How to get on twitter at school, I state that:

"Twitter first started to gain ground when high school and college students began to use the system on their mobile phones to broadcast what party they were at, who they were with, and what they were doing."

While this is my personal understanding of how Twitter started to gain momentum, I can't find a source to support my statement.

Can you help me find one or explain (and source) how Twitter initially started to become popular?
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Interesting: buddawiggi, easyeboy, wook

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June 21, 2009 08:08 PM
Twitter was thought up by Jack Dorsey in Odeo's office. The staff began playing around with it, and found it to be something they loved using themselves. They took it to the SXSW conference and had tweets showing up on a big screen television. By the end of the conference, the momentum had begun and it hasn't stopped since.

Here's a quick link from Gawker too:

http://gawker.com/tech/next-big-thing/twitter-blows-up-at-sxsw-conference-243634.php
Source(s):
Personal knowledge.

Asker's Rating:


Tags: founded, popular, twitter, sxsw, tweets

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Helpful: buddawiggi

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June 20, 2009 12:29 PM
Interest seems to spike after Twitter won the SXSW Web Award in 2007.
http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/get/a/publication/372.ppt

SXSW Archive.
http://2007.sxsw.com/

Tags: twitter, popularity

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June 20, 2009 12:34 PM
That makes sense that the SXSW award would have started the landslide of media attention.

But Twitter had already started to gain ground before SXSW in '07.

How?

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June 20, 2009 12:54 PM
Chris Sacca is listed as an early investor and advisor, possibly some genius at work here.
"The Wall Street Journal cited Chris Sacca as 'possibly the most influential businessman in America."
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-sacca

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June 20, 2009 07:51 PM
This was when I remember it really becoming popular on the web, I think it still a bit later when it really became popular, I don't think it was until this year when the MSM started mentioning it daily.

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June 20, 2009 02:48 PM
i think twitter was found on youtube and google

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Unhelpful: demanda

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June 20, 2009 04:04 PM
In my opinion Twitter was just one of the new buzz words that caught on and every media outlet started talking about it because they wanted to be hip to the current trends.

The same thing happened with podcasts a while back. It wasn't necessarily anything groundbreaking or new, but it was a new buzz word that just caught on and exploded in the media.

So overall I think it was the media who promoted it and that's how it became popular.

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June 20, 2009 04:09 PM
Thanks for your reply, Soundboy!

This could be the answer, but since I'm composing a fact for a Mahalo page, I really need a source. Can you find a reputable source to back up your theory?

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June 22, 2009 12:29 AM
There is no real single answer as to why twitter got so popular every user that joined and uses twitter would probably give you a reason why they use it and thus you would have probably a million answers why.

Twitter has an "About Us" that would help with this a little about why they developed it and where the idea came from

http://twitter.com/about#about
Source(s):
http://twitter.com/about#about


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