30 predictions for the future of Twitter

At the 140conf conference in LA, Jeff Pulver asked me to think about the future of Twitter and even though I obviously have no crystal ball, I took some risks and here you go, I gathered my predictions here, in the form of "tweet slides" so you might want to watch the video too.

It will reach masses of people
They won’t use 
the same tools as we do
It will not be only about Twitter
 -status updates will be open across social software
 -all social software will have status updates
 -Facebook has 40+ million updates a day
Twitter will still be dominant
 in status updates
it's the motherboard on which we plug in
We will laugh thinking we were updating them all manually
The social graph 
will also open up
Twitter will be big to get an idea of a person or a brand reputation
not by number of followers but mostly influence with retweeting and lists
lets you think like that person thinks
Twitter will replace SMS for millions of people
-it is portable and archives across devices
-you don’t need to remember a phone number
-you are not tied to a mobile operator
Twitter might replace Chat for many people, too
-a DM exchange is very similar to a private chat
-Twitter lists are very similar to a public chat room
Location will be one of the most widespread status update
Private updates will be bigger than public updates (my kids say...)
Public ecommerce 
status updates won’t work
buying things is very intimate
Live reviews of any place and product will deeply influence it though
Promos by brands and retailers will have big success 
for last minute deals
Talking to shops and restaurants via Twitter will become standard
and will get opt in coupons as we enter a shop, based on location
Web will be a fraction 
of mobile use
Dating over Status updates
won’t be big
Twitter won’t display 
ads in your main feed
Users will get too angry at unsolicited ads
Other revenue opportunities such as pro accounts for businesses will be enough
There will be more devices publishing updates than humans
wifi scale, planes, trains, cars all posting updates
Corporations will have entire teams devoted to Twitter and status updates
Hyperlocal news sites with Twitter geotagging feature
(thanks, @stevefarnworth)
Google and Bing will be the dominant ways to search Twitter
Google will have its own Twitter and won’t acquire Twitter
There will be a few alternatives for niche search such as brand monitoring
Internal Enterprise Twitter like services will become standard
Vertical Twitter apps 
will start to appear
Stocktweets is the first one
Twitter will remain mostly used outside of Twitter.com
Language will evolve adapting to 140char, concise, ignore rules

spam will grow and become a tough to solve issue
There will be less and less bullshit 
in public events and in general
It will always be about you, 
not the tools    From the original source here http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2009/11/30-predictions-for-the-future-of-twitter.html

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Philippine Political Twitter

WHEN Barack Obama used Twitter as a potent campaign tool last year, Filipino politicians took notice. Now, with national elections just a few months away, a number of them, too, have their own accounts with the popular micro-blogging service.

Twitter (www.twitter.com) enables members to post short messages called tweets, no more than 140 characters at a time, to tell everybody else on the network what they are doing or thinking at the moment. Created in 2006, the free service has grown immensely popular in the last few months. In fact, the social media research outfit Sysomos found that of the 11.5 million Twitter accounts (as of May 2009), 72.5 percent belonged to users who joined during the first five months of 2009.
In the Philippines, thousands of users have taken to Twitter. As of Oct. 25, Twitterholic.com (http;//twitterholic.com) was tracking 9,501 users in the country; TwitDir (http://twitdir.com) counted 6,941.

To nobody’s surprise, a small subset of these Twitter accounts belong to politicians.
Among those with presidential and vice presidential ambitions, seven have active accounts: Senator Noynoy Aquino (noynoyaquino); Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay (jejomarbinay); Senators Chiz Escudero (SayChiz), Loren Legarda (loren_legarda) and Mar Roxas (MARoxas); Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro (giboteodoro); and Senator Manny Villar (ManuelVillar). Add two more, if we still count Bayani Fernando (bayanifernando) and Vice President Noli de Castro (vpkabayan), who have been awfully quiet about their plans for 2010.

There is also a Twitter account called erapestrada, but with no posts or tweets, it is difficult to say if it really belongs to deposed president Joseph Estrada, who recently announced he would run again for president next year.

President Arroyo, who may no longer run for the top office next year, also has an unofficial Twitter site (presgma) that carries headline summaries of her activities.

Among the country’s 23 senators, 10 have Twitter accounts. Aside from those already mentioned, there are Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (SJPE), who at age 85 must be one of the oldest Twitter users in the country; and Senators Pia Cayetano (piacayetano), Ping Lacson (PingLacson) and Kiko Pangilinan (kikopangilinan).

There is also an account under Senator Bong Revilla’s name (bongrevillajr), but like the Estrada account, this one doesn’t have a single tweet.

A good measure of a Twitter user’s popularity is the number of followers he has. By this yardstick, Roxas was the most popular as of Oct. 25 (with 15,027 followers), followed by Aquino (14,446), Escudero (13,392), Cayetano (7,160), Pangilinan (4,376); Teodoro (3,244); Binay (1,326); Legarda (601); Villar (511); and Fernando (414).

In terms of activity, Escudero has posted the most number of messages (1,704), followed by Teodoro (986); Cayetano (833); Mrs. Arroyo (401); Pangilinan (259); Binay (231); Roxas (229); Fernando (129); Legarda (32) and Enrile (29).

Among politicians, Roxas was the earliest to get on Twitter (Jan. 11) while Angara was the newest addition (Oct. 14). Aquino joined on Sept. 27, after the outpouring of sympathy over his mother’s death catapulted him from nowhere to the forefront of next year’s presidential race.
Of course, the numbers tell only part of the story. They do not say anything about the quality of the posts.

Josh Sternberg, who runs a media relations and crisis management firm, says politicians need to create a conversation with their constituencies and use social media as part of a broader communications strategy. They are also most effective when they keep things personal.
“Ultimately, the strongest aspect of social media is the human element. Social media doesn’t exist without people acting on their inherent need to be social, to interact, and to see each other as human beings,” Sternberg writes.

Some local politicians already know this and write messages that reveal something of themselves. They not only talk about their advocacies, but also create a conversation by responding to comments.

“A grand reception would’ve been nice... but more food, clothes and slippers to those who’ve lost everything would mean so much more,” wrote Roxas on Oct. 13, after canceling his wedding banquet so that the money could go to help flood victims.

Cayetano sent this message from London that clearly did not come from an aide: “Did a slow run in scenic hyde park and kensington park. Saw the fountain built in memory of princess diana. Beautiful.”

Escudero showed he experiences technical difficulties like everybody else when he posted this: “Been having network problems with both smart and globe the past three days. Does anyone know why... Tnx!”

Others who seem to do their own tweets and who respond to comments are Binay, Legarda and Pangilinan.

On the other hand, the administration’s standard bearer, Teodoro, and his erstwhile rival for the party nomination, Fernando, seem to use Twitter mainly as a megaphone for news updates.
Neither Aquino nor Enrile have responded to any tweets. Read the original article here  http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideBusop.htm?f=2009/october/27/chinwong.isx&d=2009/october/27

 

Tags:  twitter philippines, politicians philippines twitter accounts,  Binay twitter, Legarda twitter, Pangilinan.twitter