04Twitter
How big is Twitter• Launched 5 years ago
• 200 million users
• raised about $360m in capital,
including a last round of $200m, on
a $3.7bn valuation
• Revenue per user : $0.25 vs. $3 for
But…. • Since 18 months, traffic has been flat.
• Time spent is eroding.
• March 2011: 12 mn 37 sec vs. 14 mn 6 sec
per user in March 2010 .
• Facebook more than 6 hours spent per
month
• 10% of all users account for 90% of the
twits
Dick Costolo Twitter CEO
• http://allthingsd.com/video/?video_id=0D9AAB1D-7EBE-4D8
6-BEC0-6A0723D63F92
Twitter is important for news
a) It is an effective promotional tool for
value-added stories
b) It allows reporters to actually
pinpoint their most loyal audience –
and establish a relationship with it
c) It doesn’t kill value like RSS feeds.
Example: the Bin Laden coverage
• 4-4:30pm — 79 Navy Seals raid
Osama Bin Laden’s compound in
Abbottabad, Pakistan.
• 7:24pm — A former Navy intelligence
officer name Keith Urbahn, currently
Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff (we all
discovered the former Defense secretary
indeed has one) shot this tweet:
Within one minute Keith Urbahn’s shout
was retweeted 80 times. Including by
New York Times’ media reporter
Brian Stelter. Another minute later, the
original tweet had multiplied by 300,
triggering instant global speculation.
• 9:46pm — The White House communication
staff on duty sends a three word “Get to
work” email to the press corps. At the same
time, Dan Pfeiffer, the White House official
serial twitterer sends the following:
• 10:40pm – As Barack Obama is still
working on his speech, and after
frantic phone calls to verify the story,
the Times’ national security team
and its Washington bureau decide to
run a one line mention of Bin Laden’s
Death. Ten minutes later, the website
shows this:
• 10:45pm – All three TV networks interrupt their
programming and break the news.
• 11:30pm – President Obama speaks live from the
White House. 56.5 million viewers watch his
address.
• 12:45am (May 2nd) — The East Coast edition of
the New York Times closes. It contains a 10 pages
section titled “The Death of Bin Laden” (NYT’s
editor Bill Keller decided to drop the “Mr.”).
Observation #1: Twitter is king.
• A well-connected, politically driven staffer leaks
the news first. No one knew Keith Urbahn
before (see his profile in New York Observer),
but his Twitter ID gave him credibility; for his
Twitter followers, his post immediately raised a
red flag: Rummy’s aide would not compromise
his boss by leaking false information.
Between 9:46pm EST and
Obama's address at 11:30pm :
15 m Tweets
exchanged
Observation #2: As notions, “edition” and deadline are dead.
The leaders of the news pack took the
straightforward option: dump
everything on the internet,
as fast as you can and without
regard for closing deadlines.
Impact on newspapers' editorial strategy
Relying on:
–Exclusive
–Expertise
–Value added
–Journalistic firepower
2300 words8 bylines
Practicalset up a twitter feeds list
to cover…
Twitter is less pernicious than search
Eli Pariser
Pioneering online organizer Eli
Pariser is the author of "The
Filter Bubble," about how
personalized search might be
narrowing our worldview.
TED video here : http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html