Victoria Raimes: Twitter craze is going down a tweet

Published on Monday 27 April 2009 09:28

STEPHEN FRY does it, so do Britney Spears and Andy Murray. In fact, so popular is Twitter that if you are reading this on the bus and you can see someone tapping away at their mobile phone, there's a fair chance they're doing it, too.

So, if someone asks you if you tweet, don't be offended, they're just wondering if you've been swept up in the latest online networking craze.

Today, Twitter is flying around the globe. So popular is the bird-themed site, it is even getting the market leader Facebook in a flap. Although Facebook still rules the internet roost with 175 million users, Twitter now has more than six million "tweeters" on its books, including more than 1100 in Edinburgh.

The premise of this phenomena is simple: you log on to the internet, sign up and tell – or tweet – the world what you are doing in no more than 140 characters.

These messages can contain anything – a casual observation as you wander down Princes Street, a link to a news article, an interesting web address, even details of the porridge you're having for breakfast.

You can "follow" the people you are interested in hearing about – equivalent to adding a friend on Facebook – and their tweets will stream on to your personal Twitter page.

Unlike Facebook, you do not have to know the people you choose to monitor. You can link up to friends and colleagues, but big names – or rather, big birds – such as Britney Spears and Jonathan Ross are also there for the following. Tennis ace Andy Murray and city-based comedian Dylan Moran, right, are also active users.

Messages are now flying from every corner of the Capital, sent by new media-savvy firms, institutions such as the Edinburgh International Festival and regular men and women on the street. A Top 100 Edinburgh tweeters list has been compiled by Twitterholic.com and is ranked by number of followers.

With so many firms keen to get in on the act, is there a danger Twitter will become nothing more than a crowded marketplace?

Scotclans, which sells kilts and other Scottish-themed goods and is the second most popular Twitter user in Edinburgh, doesn't believe that will be the case.

"Yes, Twitter is an ongoing PR system, but if you blatantly start promoting your business – and only promoting your business – people are going to suss you out pretty quickly and stop following you," says owner Robert Moffet.

"We aren't trying to sell kilts on Twitter. Rather we're trying to humanise our business, to show customers there are real, interesting people behind the company."

Scotclans, though, has found Twitter is an excellent way to make contacts. The company bumped into a new social networking site, Scotster, on the site and the pair decided to team up to enhance their business, with Scotster users now offered a link to one of Scotclans' forums.

After finding Twitter so useful, Robert and a colleague decided to visit a Twestival in February.

Edinburgh Twestival saw around 250 local users get together to raise money for charity:water, but there are often meetings – tweet-ups – for like-minded folk in the Capital. The next event, organised by Baxter Tocher (user btocher), is on May 18, but only 15 places are left.

The art promotion agency New Media Scotland, which is fifth-top Edinburgh tweeter, points out that Twitter is what the user wants it to be. Mark Daniels, executive director, says: "You can focus on following your friends and family, or you can go for the information approach and gather tips and advice from people from a technological background.

"You can't really go wrong. If you want to tweet but value your privacy, you can protect your updates. You are in control. Perhaps the one thing to remember is that you are talking to the world, so don't get carried away in what you say."

Eyebrows were recently raised when Scottish Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie tweeted from Gordon Brown's dinner table, but for many, including the PM, his Blackberry tomfoolery offered a refreshing insight into a political world that is often perceived as secretive and stuffy.

Twitter also offers the opportunity for people to give a colourful and honest view of an ongoing news story. This was proved during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, where eyewitnesses sent an estimated 80 tweets every five seconds. A keen Twitter user also beat the press to exclusive coverage in January of US Airways Flight 1549's evacuation when it had to be ditched in the Hudson River.

On a more basic level, Erica Douglas, known on the website as "little mummy", knows how valuable it can be. The mum-of-one says that Twitter is at its best when it alleviates her moments of loneliness. She says: "As a mother, sometimes all you want is another adult to talk to. When my baby settles for a nap I like to grab a coffee, sit down and have a chat. When you're frustrated it's comforting to send out the message 'My kid is driving my crazy' and getting the reply 'same here'."

She adds: "It is also ideal because Twitter is getting a lot of mums started on the internet. A lot of women don't have the time to maintain a full blog, but now they can microblog."