Why is Twitter so popular?

I have never been a great fan of social networking sites, but that does not alter the fact that a recent report by Nielsen Online found that, “Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience.”

In fact, I am sure, many people these days get their first experience of the Internet through a social networking site.

The Nielsen report further states that, “Facebook – the world’s most popular social network – is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use.”

Another social networking site that is making the news these days is twitter. Though, it seems, twitter has not made it into the report this year, but if it continues to grow at the rate it is growing, no report will be able to ignore it. So, one can’t help but wonder, what keeps twitter growing, even in the face of competitors like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut etc. Here are some reasons that I feel are contributing to the success of twitter, and set it apart from any other social networking site:

1) Simplicity: I don’t know what Albert Einstein had in mind when he said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler,” but this quote describes twitter aptly. Using the site is very simple, and it helps in achieving the basic purpose. You can share what is happening in your life, and others can tell you what is going on with theirs. That’s it. No frills, all value!

2) Comparative Newness: There seems to be a soft corner in the Internet user’s heart for start-ups. The Internet user wants to support any thing that is trying to establish itself against something that is already established. Maybe it makes him feel that, someday, he can start something like this of his own, and succeed.

3) Increased anonymity: Twitter does not ask for a lot of information and does not have a lot of information displayed on the profile page. You can choose to reveal as much of you as you want, which, I feel, makes a lot of people feel safe and comfortable. They can tell others about things that they want to, and keep other things to themselves.

4) What are you doing?: This is the simple question that twitter asks. And, this is the question everyone loves to answer. Why? The one reason I can think of is that when other people know about what we are doing, it makes us feel like a celebrity, and who does not want to feel that way?

5) Celebrities on twitter: Another reason for twitter’s recent popularity is the joining-in of many celebrities. A list of celebrities on twitter can be found here. If all these celebrities can find time to twitter, why can’t we? Plus, we can have the additional benefit of knowing what is happening in their lives before anyone else.

6) Twitter as news-breaker: Increasingly, twitter has started to act as source of breaking news. From my experience, I can safely say that I read about a few news items on twitter before I read them in the papers. I am sure you have had experiences like that too.

7) Link sharing: We all know how we bloggers, and other website developers, are forever interested in sharing our links with others, in the hope of getting a few more hits. Twitter allows us to do that, and, in fact, sends some good traffic to our site.

8 ) Rising Sun: There is a saying in Hindi that says, ” Everyone salutes the rising Sun.” Twitter, at the moment seems to be the rising Sun, and everyone seems to be saluting it.

Why do you like Twitter?