Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Twitter, Facebook's Red Headed Step Child

When I first heard of Twitter I thought it was a lame excuse for another status line on top of Facebook.  I made an account mostly because Dell wanted us to have one, and that was the end of it I thought.

Fast forward to a few days ago.  I'm driving to ASU and am listening to Johnjay Rich and Carrie, (Yes Carrie needs recognition too.) and they bring up Twitter.  Rich and Carrie start telling Johnjay about it, telling him it is going to see major growth.  I'm thinking too myself, "Why?" 

The answer.  Celebrities.  

Carrie is the celebrity gossip master and has found that many of the celebrities she follows also have their own Twitter accounts.  I'm now thinking, "So what, celebrities had Myspace accounts and we all know where that is headed."

But Twitter is different.  Celebrities are interacting with fans and the public in a way I have not seen anywhere else.  For instance, Shaq on his Twitter is often telling people where he is about the day, through posting updates through his Blackberry.  He'll say something like, "At NYPD pizza, tap me on the shoulder and I'll give you tickets."  

About two hours ago he posted this joke, "A Rastaman walks n2 a bank & hands the teller a bag of weed. She says "Sir, what is this 4?" Da Rasta said, "Mi wan open a joint account!"

Another tweeter told him his joke sucked so Shaq and him are going back and forth trying to one up the other on jokes.

Another example is Ashton Kutcher.  Today I watched some of his personal videos he took with his phone of a Cheetah coming into his office for a shoot.  Him and Demi are constantly tweeting to the public.  

If you are a fan of the Office you can tweet with Rainn Wilson.  

Here are some of the people I am following.  Come join Twitter, it takes far less time than facebook and has some pretty interesting things to see.