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Who would have thought when Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder) sent the first tweet, that action would herald an avalanche of a new world order in the realm of social networking?

Unlike most brands whose trading name stick with them forever (in some cases), Twitter, from inception to date has had to change names not once, twice but thrice –‘stat.us’, ‘Twittr’ and Twitter respectively (what we all know it to be today).

Forget the name change, the social networking service has distinguished itself as a social media platform to reckon with and the mecca for advertising.

Its clout in this realm could be attributed to the ad placement that has seen the company’s revenue skyrocket within the spate of one year, as Jon Myers, EMEA VP and MD for Marin Software, who observed that: “Twitter ad revenue increased 97% from February 2014 to February 2015, due to the platform being such a highly attractive advertising medium for brands”.

If that’s not amazing enough, “9,000 tweets posted per second on the platform” according to Jon.

Nine years may “seem” relatively young, but, considering the amount of ‘water that had passed under the bridge’ for its competitors, that period could be likened to a century.

“Twitter has also been quick to embrace mobile, something Facebook admits it took longer to do; smartphone adoption is a key reason Twitter will continue to grow in the years ahead. Mobile already accounts for 85% of Twitter usage and 85% of all its ad revenue” he added.

Summing it all up:

“All of this appears to have been achieved without upsetting existing users – it’s hard to find any evidence that ads are creating Twitter quitters…the platform remains on course to hit 400 million users this month. The bottom line is that Twitter will continue to attract brands if the advertising works and if users are kept happy; keeping this balance in check will be critical. The signs are that, for now at least, it is doing a good job.”

Just as Neil Armstrong said after landing on the moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, guess Twitter’s narrative relatively will be ‘one small step for social media, a hundred giant leaps for social networking’.

Some defining moments in Twitter history:

Who’s blowing out the candles?

Featured Image: Photo Credit: clasesdeperiodismo via Compfight cc

Olumuyiwa Coker Author

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