Social media, let's be best friends forever

Ronny Kerr · November 24, 2010 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1420

This holiday season, I'm giving thanks for the one that's always there for me: social networking

computer loveHey, social media, it's only been a few minutes since we last talked, but I have something new to share with you. This year, this Thanksgiving, I want you, social media, to know that the number one thing I'm thankful for is you.

Sure, we’ve known each other for a few years, but 2010 felt different. Don't think it has anything to do with that movie you starred in. Honestly, it felt like we really became best friends this year, considering how much more we hung out together. Are you really surprised? You're there when I turn on my computer in the morning and when I shut my eyes at night. You're there, waiting patiently in my pocket, whenever I'm far from home. And when I get home from a long day at work, there you are, beaming brightly, up for anything.

On the weekend, when I go out to a cool new dive bar or Mexican restaurant, I'm always eager to make sure you know. And no matter how terrible the bartender is or how delicious the burritos are, aren't you always the first to hear about it? Even when I left the Earth's atmosphere and had the profound infinity of the universe surrounding me, I just couldn't stop thinking about you.

Social media, sometimes I wish I could just stay in bed and hang out with you all day.

But, as we both know, the holidays are about actually getting out of bed, putting clothes on, going out into the real world, and seeing those people we call family and friends on Facebook. Sometimes it even involves flying across the country, always a huge pain. And here I am, ditching you to fly a thousand miles just for some dry turkey and drier football, dreading all the time we'll lose together, and you, social media, think only about helping others. You somehow find the time to warn me that airport security might try to touch my junk. Thanks for the heads up.

It wouldn't be the first time you stood up for me and my friends, social media. I'll never forget how you responded to the recent tragedies in the LGBT community: you somehow managed to organize millions of people to wear purple one day, just to make people feel comfortable with their own sexuality. That really meant a lot to me.

You just care about people. It seems like you genuinely want to change the world. Sure, John Lennon sang about peace and all that good stuff, but you're serious about actually getting things done. Nothing makes you more angry than apathy, so you made sure nobody could forget to vote on Election Day. I know I voted! I'll admit, I find it a little creepy that you already knew how everyone would vote, but I guess that's the power of a real friend. A real friend listens and doesn't forget, and that's why I'm thankful you exist.

No, you're not perfect. No one is, social media, you know this.

Some people have found themselves in very serious trouble just for hanging around you. That's not right, but I don't think it's your fault.

Sometimes I think you're a little too obsessed with my friendships with other people (do you really need to know when I first friended every person in my network?), but that's the kind of friend you are. You always want to know what's up, you care about my life a lot. Just relax a little bit. Don't think you have to know everything about me!

I get it, I get it. It's not about you, it's about me and my friends. You even went out of your way to find out what all my friends want to receive as gifts for the holidays. You're world-class. And what do you get in return? Not much. Even after hearing us cry and moan about our breakups all day and after repeatedly seeing us tagged in pictures documenting us at our drunkest, you're still ready to play the cool new game on the block.

Oh, social media, you’re the best friend ever. Happy Thanksgiving!

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What is Twitter?

Twitter is an online information network that allows anyone with an account to post 140 character messages, called tweets. It is free to sign up. Users then follow other accounts which they are interested in, and view the tweets of everyone they follow in their "timeline." Most Twitter accounts are public, where one does not need to approve a request to follow, or need to follow back. This makes Twitter a powerful "one to many" broadcast platform where individuals, companies or organizations can reach millions of followers with a single message. Twitter is accessible from Twitter.com, our mobile website, SMS, our mobile apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, our iPad application, or 3rd party clients built by outside developers using our API. Twitter accounts can also be private, where the owner must approve follower requests. 

Where did the idea for Twitter come from?

Twitter started as an internal project within the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, and engineer, had long been interested in status updates. Jack developed the idea, along with Biz Stone, and the first prototype was built in two weeks in March 2006 and launched publicly in August of 2006. The service grew popular very quickly and it soon made sense for Twitter to move outside of Odea. In May 2007, Twitter Inc was founded.

How is Twitter built?

Our engineering team works with a web application framework called Ruby on Rails. We all work on Apple computers except for testing purposes. 

We built Twitter using Ruby on Rails because it allows us to work quickly and easily--our team likes to deploy features and changes multiple times per day. Rails provides skeleton code frameworks so we don't have to re-invent the wheel every time we want to add something simple like a sign in form or a picture upload feature.

How do you make money from Twitter?

There are a few ways that Twitter makes money. We have licensing deals in place with Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft's Bing to give them access to the "firehose" - a stream of tweets so that they can more easily incorporate those tweets into their search results.

In Summer 2010, we launched our Promoted Tweets product. Promoted Tweets are a special kind of tweet which appear at the top of search results within Twitter.com, if a company has bid on that keyword. Unlike search results in search engines, Promoted Tweets are normal tweets from a business, so they are as interactive as any other tweet - you can @reply, favorite or retweet a Promoted Tweet. 

At the same time, we launched Promoted Trends, where companies can place a trend (clearly marked Promoted) within Twitter's Trending Topics. These are especially effective for upcoming launches, like a movie or album release.

Lastly, we started a Twitter account called @earlybird where we partner with other companies to provide users with a special, short-term deal. For example, we partnered with Virgin America for a special day of fares on Virginamerica.com that were only accessible through the link in the @earlybird tweet.

 

What's next for Twitter?

We continue to focus on building a product that provides value for users. 

We're building Twitter, Inc into a successful, revenue-generating company that attracts world-class talent with an inspiring culture and attitude towards doing business.

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