Is Twitter the new MySpace?

When I logged into Twitter the other day I discovered I had a new follower in @georgiawonder. As is customary, I had a look to see what this was, and it's a 'UK band'. There has also been a spate of random businesses including Galvin at Windows, the swanky Park Lane restaurant, active on Twitter, as well as more 'viral' activity like @GMcQueen (better known as Peter Kay's Geraldine) and @Aleksandr_Orlov from the comparethemeerkat ads. This has got me thinking.



When MySpace kicked off, savvy bands and self-promoters were all over it, and you couldn't log in without having four or five new friend requests from complete randoms. Twitter can do the same thing, and I think is, but makes this much less intrusive and is nowhere near as high maintenance.

Whack yourself a picture and a background in, with a link to your site, and away you go. You are limited in how much you can post, which means you can't ramble, and it's pretty much centralised (you can use direct messages for privacy if you like).

The user-friendly nature of Twitter clearly makes it appeal to a different generation, and with a slightly different purpose. Lily Allen came from 'nothing' on MySpace, while prominent Twitterers like Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross are clearly more established names who don't need to 'promote' themselves but WANT TO communicate with their audience.

In addition, the similarities don't stop there, as Twitter seems to be the new darling of the British media, who can't believe their luck in getting free updates from the lives of celebs, with Ross even threatening to Tweet with Fry when he appears on his returning show.



The issue for Twitter, of course, is how to start raking it in without losing the key attractions. If they can find how to, and possibly even if they don't, 2009 could be a massive year for Twitter.