Twitter Live Stream: Social And Media Impact Twitter is changing; for better or for worse…? That is for you to decide.

Twitter has had a memorable journey since its inception. It has been a platform that has given voices to many and a cheap way to endorse your business through the word of mouth. It has been a testing ground for many firms proving that in the internet age, only the most interesting will win.

But twitter is changing and these changes are much more than adding characters in a tweet. they are more about changing the essence of Twitter.

At what point does twitter stop being twitter?

There have been rumours that Twitter would be evolving to allow for a greater character count. This was confirmed earlier this year in May. Some would argue that changing the character limit changes the very nature of twitter, others would say it is about time you can do more with twitter! One thing we can all probably agree on is that the original twitter format forced new levels of creativity and ingenuity within the online marketing sales arena.

With the advent of Twitter Live stream, increased character counts and more, Twitter has morphed into something entirely different from its original design. It could be argued that the ability to stream rich media will help to address the dilemma between trying to convey more information with fewer words/characters. This is because videos are self-explanatory and have the ability to capture/present information greater efficacy than text alone.

Twitter is changing; for better or for worse…? That is for you to decide.

Will this lead to the monetisation of Twitter?

Do you remember when YouTube was ad-free? Do you remember the good ol' days when Facebook didn't have a marketing/sales agenda, when your profile was just a profile and all your random Google searches didn't link to your account (thus creating very weird adverts on your FB home screen)?

We have seen it with other social platforms, once media content becomes mainstream the adverts will follow. Will it happen to Twitter? Previous experiences would suggest that this will happen, and happen soon!

A good thing for Twitter

Twitter's strength has been around crowd sourced news gathering, often it has outpaced the professional news corporations with the breadth and speed of sharing information.

Having a broadcast capability within Twitter feeds will improve their competitive position in this market, add the prospect of monetisation and twitter will be very happy with this new venture.

Not only this but in many cases media content can make communication more effective and easy. With this move it appears that twitter is going with current trends, rich media content is the way forward.

Twitter live will also make crowd casting simple and will provide tremendous value in capturing the momentum of live events. It is possible that conventional newscasters may have difficulty in competing with Twitter in this arena due to its ubiquitous nature.

How will this affect the average twitter user?

Will twitter become too similar to other social networks? Will this engage a new audience? Will I have to think twice about using twitter on my mobile phone!? These are but a few questions raised with the scope of twitters new progression.

If rich media content is the way forward because it is more accessible, it is highly likely that twitter will see a large expansion in its user base by adding the streaming capability. It is also possible we will see a rise in new user demographics e.g. older adults. The reason being, older adults tend to prefer news content as opposed to pure entertainment.

The battle for an older audience will likely begin between the social networks in order to expand and generate new revenue streams. For instance, the baby boomer demographic is currently being pursued by older incumbents such as Facebook and new entrants such as Sentab, who utilise a TV interface, as it the most preferred platform for these types of users.

Can it bridge the Old vs Young social media gap?

The social network market is becoming more and more competitive and in the blink of an eye you can find that a well-used and large network is left in the dust by modern and innovative features; did someone just mention MySpace and Bebo?

That said there are emerging social networks like Sentab that are taking an alternative approach to social networking. Focusing on smaller key demographics and creating a niche space for people and communicates who would rather have a custom and intimate experience as opposed to the maelstrom of current social networking and social media.

In this global environment of instantaneous information, it could be argued that we as a global society are crossing a threshold where local community and smaller networks are devolving due to the buzz and hype of global social media. It is important that social networks are as accessible as possible to bridge the generational gap by creating platforms that generate social impact for people who may be getting left behind by the social media rush.