How do you make something like Twitter so huge?

Factual Questions
1

I understand that the guys who start these things are technological whizkids but it’s not the concept or programing that interest me. Let’s say I’ve just put Twitter together (I wish!) and now I’m sitting at my laptop wondering what to do with it.

I know there are hundreds of messaging apps already out there. How do I make people want to use my untried one? Do I somehow get it highly ranked on Google so when people search for a messaging app Twitter is at the top? Maybe I know people there or worked there but then how would that help me, isn’t Google supposed to be unbiased with search results?

OK, maybe I spread it by word of mouth or emails among colleges, etc. But why should the kids use it when there are many like it. What for instance does Twitter do that Facebook doesn’t?

It beats me and I’m beginning to think that if I had come up with Twitter first it would still be a completely unknown app with a user base in the hundreds. I just have no idea at all how the real Twitter made itself so popular so quickly.

2

Marketing, marketing, marketing. There are lots of chat apps and they all have users even if you never heard of it.

It was easier to break in with a new chat/message app, for example, years ago as long as it had innovative technology, like WhatsApp being cross platform or whatever it offers.

Twitter exploded because it had great word of mouth at a big conference and users saw that you could keep instant tabs on the statuses of other users and it spread “news” more than the other sites out there at the time. Once Twitter showed its power with users breaking major news before TV/newspaper sites and celebrities set up accounts, there was no turning back. Reporters started to write articles when athletes tweeted something. Anyway, you’d need connections to get into such a conference.

If you break in now with a new platform, you need a gimmick based on filling or anticipating the needs of the users. For example, Signal’s gimmick is that Edward Snowden gave it its seal of approval or FrozenChat, which has off the record chats for privacy. You could also market yourself as being “troll free” (ha) or have a different TOS than Twitter or Facebook or whatever, to try and pick off disgruntled users.

In addition to the technology that works, it would be best to get feedback in the tech/programming communities, give the geeks something they like and helped test for you.

Word of mouth today comes from social networks like Reddit, Youtube, etc and the programming forums, tech websites/podcasts, and you’d need people to preview and review your app to hype it up.

You don’t need all of the market, just a nice niche. Maybe one day you’d be bought over.

The teens I know love Snapchat and WhatsApp, and maybe new apps I have not heard of. All it takes is one of their cool friends to use it. People like shiny new toys which fill a gap. These teens are the end user demographic, who were not involved with the initial testing.

Regarding Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO): most apps don’t need that. Most people don’t type “microblog” or “social app” in Google to find one. You’d need to market it at the aforementioned tech forums/blogs/videos/podcasts so people download your app from the Apple or Android stores. You could rig the SEO so the articles, videos, and forums talk about it, but SEO is not as important as it used to be regarding apps. Like why would a prospective user type “Samsung Galaxy Apps” in Google instead of his/her mobile’s app store? Most people get apps from their store, so that is were the focus must be with the marketing. Google will index and rank your site based on traffic, backlinks, content, format, and other algorithms.

3

IIRC, Twitter originally became popular because it was possible to post to it from your phone via text message. This was the origin of the small (~100 characters) limit on tweets. This was before the age of smartphones (or at least ubiquitous smartphones), so posting to Facebook via your phone wasn’t possible at the time.

Why does Twitter persist in popularity now that its main differentiator is gone? Network effects. People use Twitter because other people are using Twitter. Do you want to follow your friends or favourite celebrities? Well, they’re on Twitter, so that’s where you go. Want to start microblogging yourself? Many of your friends are probably on Twitter already, and most of them are unlikely to start using a second service just for you. Hence, you use Twitter. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle.

A valid question to ask would be what happened to MySpace, then? I’m not entirely sure, but I believe that Facebook got its foothold with a younger generation of college students who by-and-large didn’t have a social media account of any kind. MySpace hadn’t yet grown large enough that network effects were significant yet.

4

Excellent answers both, I at least have some idea now of the methods used to get a new app popular. I too wondered about MySpace and the complete rout it suffered at the hands of Facebook. Maybe Facebook just seemed cooler, that MySpace name was really clunky.

5

MySpace was sold to a giant Old Media corporation (News Corp.), that pretty much stopped innovating, and Facebook ate its lunch because they kept adding new features and making new things people wanted.

MySpace was really big with musicians, and the new owners thought it had a sweet position in the Music world, but it turned out that if you are an internet company and you rest on your laurels in 2005, you get left in the dust.

That statement might turn out to be true with any other year, too. Stay hungry.