Scott M. Iseman’s Lifestream

What's happening today? Looks like Twitter finally made it into the big leagues.

One of today's social media headlines reads: Why Twitter is the Most Popular Word of 2009.

I haven't blogged much laterly. Probably because most of my writing has been in the form of Tweeting over the last several months. Simple to put thoughts into 140 characters, get on a rant, or journey, and tweet away. So that leaves my lifestream a bit dormant. Thanks to Twitter, I've learned a valuable lesson about blogging this year. When blogging becomes stagnant, readership drops. So be it.

We're well beyond the Twitter has proved itself phase. That happened with the Iranian election aftermath in June. Twitter is so "in", it's not even hip to poke fun at it anymore. The people making fun of "Twitter" phase happened back in the Spring 2009 when many said the service "jumped the shark", or late night talk shows blasted Twitter, just because it was the talk of the town.

The jump the sharkers, and late night hosts were clearly wrong.

Many people have their take about what made Twitter "twitter". Some will say celebrities, including the star power Twitter brought to life. Others will say real time communication in the form of microblogging which can connect people from all around the world in a split second. My take: It's the journalism aspect that made Twitter the superstar it is now, and why Twitter ends 2009, as the "word of the year".

See... In 2008, journalism was clearly beaten down (and still is), yet Twitter gave journalists and reporting a new lease on life. Thereby, many celebrity stories, special feature stories, and breaking news events have been catapulted to national hype status, because of mass Twitter media coverage. The more the media flaunted Twitter, and it's star power, the bigger the name the service received. 

Can Twitter maintain it's superstar profile going into 2010? Sure it can, but I expect the service will settle in as a real time communication utility, giving both influentials and businesses a platform to communicate to the masses, and yes, a now high profile outlet where journalists will report the news, quicker than the mainstream can.

Not bad at all Twitter... Not bad at all.