Twitter @ five years old - how micro-blogging changed the world

It seems amazing to think that five years ago today a small start-up site called Twitter went live with one co-founder announcing to the world "just setting up my twttr".

Had Jack Dorsey known that his first tweet would be heralded as a great moment five years later he'd probably have written something more profound or poetic, but he, like everyone else, could never have predicted its success.

In 2006 all eyes were on Facebook as it started to chug into life through its friend-based interactions and photo sharing capabilities, hinting at the web-conquering behemoth it would become.

Even MySpace was still in reasonable health, albeit showing signs of fatigue, thanks to its ability to let users share music and send messages to one another.

So Twitter's premise - giving people the chance to write what they were doing in a 140-character limit that updated in real time - can't have been that compelling.

Yet, over time, and thanks to celebrity endorsements - notably from Stephen Fry - the site quickly grew, and thanks to its simple interface (in contrast to MySpace and even Facebook) and news-breaking capabilities, soon established itself as the place to be.

One of the first stories to capture the popular imagination and broadcast the site to the world was the emergency landing of a passenger plane in the Hudson river. This picture uploaded to Twitter quickly became an iconic image.

Twitter is now estimated to be worth $10bn (£6.25bn) and is competing with Facebook as the internet's social media darling.

For savvy businesses there are benefits to be had too, such as the ability to monitor brand references, promote deals and, crucially, engage with customers to offer real-time information and feedback to complaints or questions.

However, it would be wrong to suggest that for businesses that embraced Twitter only milk and honey have since flowed, as there have been some notable gaffes along the way for many brands.

Vodafone, for instance, suffered major embarrassment when a social media guru at the firm accidentally posted on the corporate account instead of his own. Sadly the message wasn't 'off for a pint', but something rather more contentious.

"@VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homos and is going after beaver," read the unfortunate tweet.

More recently, an employee at US motoring manufacturer Chrysler was fired for using the F-word on a tweet that was presumably meant for a personal account, while the American Red Cross also suffered from the cross-account post demon.

Another notable example was a user called @theconner who tweeted herself out of a job by writing: "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."

The company responded: "Who is the hiring manager? I'm sure they would love to know you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web." One nil to Cisco.

Even politicians are susceptible. Labour candidate Kerry McCarthy was forced to apologise for breaking electoral law after announcing her constituency's postal vote result on Twitter.

Phil Stewart, customer service director at Virgin Media Business, said that incidents like this underline the need for businesses to put clear policies in place for the use of Twitter.

"It's important that organisations develop guidelines for social media use sooner rather than later. Simply banning employees from tweeting at work might sound like the obvious option, but this could do more harm than good," he said.

"Employers should work closely with their teams to ensure that they fully understand that comments made online are public and could be associated with the company, regardless of whether or not they are made in a professional capacity."

So that's Twitter, five years on - influencing business strategy, getting celebrities in trouble and letting workers the world over let each other know what they had for lunch.

The founders should be applauded for creating such a world-changing web site, which has even been able to help those involved in the recent earthquake in north-east Japan to communicate with each other while phone networks were jammed.

And, of course, don't forget you can follow V3.co.uk on Twitter and all the team including Dan Worth, Phil Muncaster, Dan Robinson, Khidr Suleman and Madeline Bennett.

21 Mar 2011