Socialise
2. At 09:03am on 29 Jul 2009, The_Hess wrote:
Does the BBC ever read the responses to it’s blogs? Who cares if Twitter wants to change it’s frontpage? Wow, it has a search function. That’s never been done before. There is no basis here for reasoned discussion and debate unless you wish to discuss whether or not Amanda Bonnen’s landlord was right to sue her. This is simply a glorified press release.
Can we please change the channel.
Well now the insanely popular micro-blogging service Twitter is following suit. The changes are initially aimed at helping newcomers to the site navigate their way around and understand the brave new world of tweeting.
There are Youtube videos with more hits than Twitter. Facebook is far more popular, as well as being able to keep its members interested.
This was one of the comments found on the BBC dot.life blog and there are many, many more…
4. At 09:12am on 29 Jul 2009, SleepyJiblet wrote:
At last, an entire article on Twitter; just what your audience has obviously been waiting for!
Oh no, wai…
And more…
6. At 09:40am on 29 Jul 2009, SARNGE1 wrote:Do the BBC have shares in twitter?? Im sick of hearing about it being mentioned on their broadcasts, and now increasingly the blogs posted. I feel that it is a completely miss-guided attempt at getting to young people. As the vast majority of this demographic use facebook and cant stand twitter. Therefore please stop wasting my license fee and revert to reporting/blogging on worthwhile subject matter
Regards
A infuriated young person….
And wait, yes, another one…
12. At 10:49am on 29 Jul 2009, Phil90125 wrote:You’re joking of course.
Anther blog about twitter.
Fantastic! it must be nearly 24 hours since the last one.
if anyone wanted proof that the BBC doesn’t pay a blind bit of attention to the responses post on their “tech” blogs then this latest entry provides it.
The BBC is the world’s largest broadcaster. It is funded by television fees paid by every person owning a television capable of receiving broadcasts. It is therefore fair to say that the BBC should have some kind of impartiality but can you really say that continually promoting Twitter is impartial. More to the point, is it really what the readers want?
Another comment:
42. At 5:17pm on 29 Jul 2009, synthil wrote:
I suggest everyone reading about this, everyone seeing the blatant, non-BBC partiality towards a commercial service gets up and does something about this. That’s what the free internet is for, after all.
The BBC, and I have mentioned this before, has a long, creditable and absolutely essential history with impartiality. It is BBC policy, I believe, to refrain from advertisement of anything that isn’t also a public service. Which Twitter is not.
Maggie, you’re advertising Twitter. Plain and simple. The BBC does not advertise. The BBC is a public service, that we pay for. We do not pay you to provide advertisement and exclamatory soundbites. We pay you for your service – news.
I will be emailing the BBC about this, referring them to the many, many examples of absolutely blatant advertising on the part of both Maggie and Rory. Referring them to what is not just a breach of BBC policy, but a breach of BBC spirit, too. I am not complaining about poor-quality journalism – I am complaining about the lack of honest, impartial journalism itself.
These are just a few of the comments on the dot.life blog
Simply take a look at the sheer number of news items featuring Twitter: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=Vf9&q=site:news.bbc.co.uk+bbc.co.uk+twitter&start=10&sa=N
It seems a story is not really worth publishing if it doesn’t mention Twitter.
So what is Twitter? Twitter is one of the most hyped sites on the internet over the past year or so. Users make an account and can ‘Tweet’ their thoughts but only using 140 characters which asks the question, can you actually say something worth reading with only 140 characters? However, according to Complete.com it’s popularity is hitting a major wall. Between April and May, Twitter’s unique visitors grew just 1.4 percent – a harsh contrast to when traffic more than doubled from February to April. Perhaps the BBC’s promotion campaign had stopped?
The BBC did publish some interesting statistics on Twitter saying that 40% of Tweets were babble. so perhaps they have begun to realise themselves that Twitter is nothing more than a fad.
Although Twitter has grown to the #3 social network in the world, behind that of Facebook and Bebo, it has recently been shown that only 40% of users stay and use the site again after registering. Compare those statistics to Facebook or Myspace and you won’t be surprised.
In June Harvard University released the results of a study they conducted on over 300,000 Twitter users. It came to the conclusion that 90% of all Tweets are by 10% of the users. More interestingly, the study found that the median number of tweets per user in an entire lifetime is… one.
Make up your own mind where Twitter may be on the Hype cycle. Perhaps the Trough of Dissillusionment?
It really isn’t just the BBC though, take a look at the amount of ‘news’ about Twitter.
After all take a look at what Twitter actually means:
Witter:
to speak at length on a trivial subject
Twit:
The truth is Twitter CAN be useful. On Twitter news can spread quickly. Very quickly in fact. Ignoring the 40% babble and you’re left with a search engine updated almost instantly. People are not just ‘tweeting’ about their breakfast but they also tweet about the news. Want to find out what the traffic’s like? Then check Twitter.
Brands are using Twitter to discover what people think of their product. Twitter can show you pretty quickly what people’s opinions and experiences are.
Here are some other interesting articles on the waning popularity of Twitter:
Even some Twitter users feel that Twitter sucks
17. At 11:10am on 29 Jul 2009, Cheltenham_Steve wrote:
If this should be anywhere it should be in a news article. Not a blog.
What is this obsession the BBC has with Twitter?
Frankly I’m getting to the point of not bothering to come and read the BBC Tech blogs any more because they just seem to be puffer articles for Twitter. I don’t pay my licence fee to pay journalists to simply act as glorified salemen and women for other companies.
Lets see some proper journalism in the blogs, rather than just regurgitated press releases.
What do you think?
If this should be anywhere it should be in a news article. Not a blog.
What is this obsession the BBC has with Twitter?
Frankly I’m getting to the point of not bothering to come and read the BBC Tech blogs any more because they just seem to be puffer articles for Twitter. I don’t pay my licence fee to pay journalists to simply act as glorified salemen and women for other companies.
Lets see some proper journalism in the blogs, rather than just regurgitated press releases.
Shortlink:
I notice that BBC tends to talk about Twitter a lot. Also many of the sports correspondents post on Twitter during matches.