Happy Fifth Birthday Twitter!

According to the Twitter blog, this week sees in their fifth birthday and it was this time in 2006 when a small team of people started working on a prototype of the microblogging service. It was in fact March 21, 2006, when Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet, and since then the site has continued to rocket to the Twitter we know today.

There have been some staggering figures in these first five years since the creation of Twitter, however I have included the stats from the original post which I think say it all.

The interesting thing from my point of view will be where Twitter goes next, and whether it can maintain this success or whether it has reached it's natural peak. With the recent introduction of various ways of monetising the service, with marketing options such as promoted tweets, and promoted trends, I do believe there are a few tricks left up the sleeve of the Twitter folk yet. I'd be interested to know what you think, and how you think Twitter will expand on the success of the first five years?

#tweets
3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.

1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.

50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.

140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.

177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.

456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).

6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts
572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.

460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.

182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees
8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.



Pic - Twitter Birthday Cake

Miley Cyrus 'Goodbye' Twitter Rap

Those following Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) on Twitter will know by now that she had deleted her account. Not quite contempt with a quietly walking away, Miley has made a stand rapping about why on Youtube. Fans of her since yesterday have been able to voice their views against the hashtag #Mileycomeback (Although something tells me that I think we'll see her on there again in some way soon). Until then here is the rap itself for all those interested.

Woofer: Anti-Twitter macroblogging site

There is a new dog about town, he goes by the name Woofer (www.woofertime.com), and is here to help all of those users who have been sucked into irrelevant tweets, or are frustrated with shortening their profound thoughts of the day into 160 characters. Woofer is the new anti-Twitter 1400 character 'macroblogging' service, which offers everything you would find on Twitter, but with the benefit of a lot more words.





For all of those not convinced, check out known celebrities (Of which I'm not personally convinced) on Woofer (www.woofertime.com) such as Ryan Seacrest, and Jimmy Fallon who have already started posting regular Woofs, however as we know for our beloved early Twitter, authentication was never a certainty.





Although I am a very long way yet to be convinced, Woofer certainly may fulfil the need of a niche audience out there with more to say, and so in the words of Woofer "Be eloquent. Use adverbs. and DEA (don't ever abbreviate)".

Happy Woofing!

'Going Google' Campaign

So what do you get when you pick a fight with Google? Well I think Microsoft are about to find out! Aside from the below billboards which is part of a new 'Going Google' campaign designed to show everyone of the benefits of using Google apps over Microsoft Office, there will also be a letter writing campaign and hashtag assult via @Googleatwork to boot.



Video - 'Going Google' Billboard: To give a new message about Google apps everyday for a month



Via Tech Crunch

Harry Potter Casts 'Twitter Spells' on your followers

This is a brilliant little app for all those Harry Potter fans out there, which just can't get enough of the box office smash 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' released Worldwide last week. 'Hogwarts Wizarding Class' (Found here: www.harrypottertweet.com) allows Twitterers out there to cast spells on their unsuspecting follows, giving them the option to send in a flock of birds (See below), shroud their page in darkness, or send them a love potion.


Pic 1 - Harry Potter Tweet

I think this is a really nice idea, and is very in the spirit of the movies. Developed by Warner Brothers the app is certainly one of the best uses of Twitter I have seen from a brand and hope fully raises the bar to a new level.


Pic 2 - Harry Potter Tweet (Photo Credit Revolution)

My only reservation is on the subject of how comfortable the Twitterverse is in divulging there login details to every new app that appears, but I guess we will see as more and more of them appear.

Fosters 'Ozometer' Twitter App

As part of their latest campaign Fosters have launched their new 'Ozometer' Twitter application to try and work out just how 'Aussie' us Brits really are. According to the Fosters site, the 'Ozometer' Twitter App works by scanning thousands of Tweets every minute, and determines whether they are 'More' or 'Less' Aussie when compared to a predetermined list of words and phrases.



On the site users can view the live feed of Tweets as their fate is decided with a percentage grade, search for their own Twitter account, and view the current rankings by Celebrity, Place, or People. Although this does not necessarily seem like something radically new, I really like this. Dipping into the positive Vs. negative Tweets is actually really entertaining, and similarly to Twistori (Shown below), can easily sap up minutes of your time.



I'm curious to see how this campaign evolves, and will certainly be looking out for my Tweets in the charts. For further information on how the app works, all info is on the Fosters site here.


Update:

I've just in an article on Revolution, that further to this Fosters have partnered with Nuts.co.uk to give users a fully 'Aussie' experience complete with advertorials, quizzes, updates, and competitions (As if 'Assess My Breasts', 'Beach Babes getting wild' and the 'Naked Chanelle special' wasn't enough already). You can view the full article here: 'Fosters launches Twitter app: find out how Aussie you are'.




Enjoy!

Philips Vs. Wolfboy Twitter Competition

The Philips Vs. Twitter competition launched this week, giving people the opportunity to walk away with a brand new Cinema 21:9 TV. The idea is simple... Tweet exactly what you would like to challenge Philips with using text, or links to images, or video, and follow @Philips_vs to read the incoming entries.



Video - Philips Vs. Wolfboy Twitter Competition


The winning entry will be filmed and shown around the web, to secure the entrant Worldwide fame!


Good luck!


Via Illegal Advertising

Volkswagen Twitter ad and Spotify Campaigns.

Okay now before we get started I just want to clarify that these are different campaigns; however are both good examples of utilising emerging media platforms such as Spotify and Twitter.


Let’s start with Spotify… Spotify is a brilliant application which allows users to listen to any music they wish to for free, and is still growing at a rate of at least 10,000 new users every day! It’s purely ad funded (well there is a premium service for those who are still mortified by the very prospect of seeing a banner on their screen) and due to the clean nature of the app can achieve very impressive standout for an ad.





Volkswagen in Sweden decided to use the music application for their Passat EcoFuel Jazz Calculator campaign which allowed users to plot their journey cross country in Jazz miles. The site calculates the Kilometres, and CO2 emissions for your journey, as well as the time it will take, and creates a Jazz playlist which can play out throughout that time (which you can then save to your Spotify account).





This is a great idea, however would be a lot more interesting if you could download it to your mobile, via the Spofity App (due to land later this year) and play it through you car stereo.



So… Twitter. This is a really cool example of utilising Twitter without pulling users away from the site they are currently on. Volkswagen has created this neat ad which looks at the info from your Twitter stream and recommends the car most relevant to you.



Pic 1 - VW Twitter Rich Media ad


I really like the simplicity of this ad, test it for yourself here (Volkswagen Rich Media Twitter ad), and if you still do not have a Twitter account why not try a celeb Twitter name. I’ve posted some examples below.



Pic 2 - VW Twitter ad: Jonathon Ross (@Wossy)



Pic 3 - VW Twitter ad: Demi Moore (@mrskutcher)


Via - Adverblog

#ukhols map - Vodafone Uses Twitter and Hashtags for New Campaign

This is very cool, especially as I go on holiday soon and was amazed by the speed in which this app works. So... Lets start at the beginning, Vodafone as part of their 'free roaming charges' campaign have launched a new application, the #ukhols map, which is populated by Twitter users tweeting the hashtag #ukhols. Users simply tweet the hashtag, age, sex, first half of their postcode, and destination (e.g. #ukhols 25 F B12 Gran Canaria), and then have their route uploaded onto the map. Below is an example of my holiday (Las Vegas baby, in 2 weeks)!!



Pic - Vodafone: Twitter #ukhols map


The #ukhols Map was written by web developer Ben Marsh for Vodafone, who throughout June, July and August, are abolishing roaming charges in over 37 countries. The map according to the website uses the Twitter Search, Google Maps, Yahoo Placemaker as well as jQuery. Personally I think this is really quite cool, a little show to load on my machine, but as I said uploaded my tweet in seconds.



Thank you to Agus for pointing this in my direction.

WSOP - PokerRoad Nation Twitter Tool

Well The World Series of Poker begins today in Las Vegas, with thousands of players, taking part in over 50 events, over the next two months, which as imagined can be pretty hard to follow at times. It has been reported on Twitters Blog that to give some clarity to the madness and help followers of the WSOP keep up-to-date with the latest news, Poker Pro and Twitterer Joe Sebok has created a new tool which aggregates relevant tweets for users.



PokerRoad Nation aggregates tweets from professional players such as Barry Greenstein and Annie Duke, as well as amateurs, and allows users to filter the tweets relevant to them, in order to see updates about a specific WSOP events or specific players. This is a great way of keeping track of the WSOP and allows users to view exactly what they want, when they want.

Twitter Most influential List

This was a neat little article released in the middle of last week naming the most influential Twitterers in the world. Put together by agency JCPR, their 'Twitter index' was based on an algorithm, rating the number of followers each user has, as well as the interest their posts generate among followers, including the number of times their name is mentioned and how many times they are 'retweeted' by others. The list is as follows:

The Top 20 Influential Twitters, according to JCPR:
Jonathan Ross (@Wossy)
Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton)
Stephen Fry (@StephenFry)
Ashton Kutcher (@AplusK)
Graham Linehan (@Glinner)
Demi Moore (@MrsKutcher)
CNN (@CNNbrk)
Lance Armstrong (@LanceArmstrong)
New York Times (@NYTimes)
Wil Wheaton (@Wilw)
Shaquille O'Neal (@The_Real_Shaq)
Downing Street (@DowningStreet)
Jason Bradbury (@JasonBradbury)
Philip Schofield (@Schofe)
Soulja Boy (@SouljaBoyTellEm)
Jimmy Fallon (@JimmyFallon)
Barack Obama (@BarackObama)
John Mayer (@JohnCMayer)
Michael Arrington (@TechCrunch)
Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest)


Unfortunately I fell just outside this, but then again there’s always next year!!


Another interesting Twitter Influential list can be found here: www.twitalyzer.com which includes 100 names, and is regularly updated using measures of average influence, their signal-to-noise ratio, their generosity, velocity, and clout (you can even drill down by country if need be).


You can follow me here @funkadelicad

South Park mentions Susan Boyle in latest episode

As you may of heard there is a certain lady called Susan Boyle creating a bit of a Twitterstorm over the last week or so, and whilst I was desperately trying to avoid writing about her, I kind of feel compelled to mention this recent update. It was tweeted today by Telegraph.co.uk that South Park (not being a show to miss an opportunity to poke fun at the latest hot topic) have namechecked Susan Boyle in their latest episode (see below).



You can view the full Telegraph.co.uk article here 'Susan Boyle is namechecked on South Park' and for all of those who are interested in how a normal everyday cat-lady can go from zero to hero in a matter of tweets, please read Nick Burcher's post entitled: Susan Boyle - Google Insights for Search shows her global celebrity status!.



Susan Boyle - Mentions Chart (www.twist.flaptor.com)



Susan Boyle Performance - Britain's Got Talent

Baker Tweet - Twitter tool for Bakers

Baker Tweet is a piece of hardware that allows bakeries to update their followers as to when there is anything new about to come out of the oven. The below video explains all, but basically the baker can turn a dial and select the relevant product, then with the push of a button a tweet is sent.





If you wish to find out more you can visit Poke (the creative brains behind this), or follow Albion's Oven on Twitter @albionsoven to see what's coming out of the oven.

Agent Provocateur on Twitter

Agent Provocateur has become one of the latest brands to make its debut on micro-blogging social network Twitter (@msprovocateur). Tweets mainly include posts from their blog ‘Hello Agent Provocateur’, and other sporadic comments and replies (So pretty much everything you’d expect).



I know this is nothing really new, but it will give the brand a chance to show that, yes, anyone can follow the latest trend, but when that isn’t enough anymore, how do they stand out (and if there is one brand that should be able to do that it is Agent Provocateur). Plus where else would a fellow Twitterer be able to read about the ‘The History Of The Thong’?


Related posts:

Top 10 Cult Cinema Ads in the UK
Agent Provocateur – Love me tender… or else!
Follow the Virgin - Latest Argent Provocateur campaign