On June 12, 1924, the world said hello to Kleenex. It’s original intention was as a facial tissue, though there have been many other uses and spinoffs since then. There have been many like it, but it was the first and foremost inventor and brand of facial tissue.
Eighty-two years later, another brand that revolutionized a market was introduced. This time, the market was microblogging. In the last two years, this brand has grown exponentially and now hosts millions of users. Like Kleenex, there are many other brands like this one, but none of them are the face of microblogging. Of course, this brand is Twitter.
Markets can get taken over by brands
Just like Kleenex has become the face of facial tissue (ha ha), Twitter has become the face of microblogging. All it takes is one brand to revolutionize a market like these two have done. Does anyone ask for a “facial tissue” when they really want a Kleenex? More importantly, does anyone notice that Kleenex might be of the Puffs brand?
There are a lot of people who generalize microblogging into one service, regardless of the platform. Another example of this behavior is people who categorize all MMORPGs into the realm of World of Warcraft. Each game may have its own advantages and niches, but since one is more prevalent than the others, it becomes the face of the market. In some cases, it takes over the market.
Is Twitter the best face for the market?
We at Microblink have written articles on a number of microblogging platforms and are dedicated to exploring new services. We know that Twitter isn’t the only platform out there, but we do know that it’s easily the most popular. We’re also very cognizant of the fact that Twitter is rapidly becoming the face of microblogging. In a world of “Twitter Clones” and “Twitter Killers”, it’s easy to see what all the other microblogging services are setting their sights on.
Microblogging services can’t be lumped into one basket. That basket needs to be improved, expanded, pondered and questioned. Is being like Twitter the best thing for a service or the microblogging community? To some extent, yes. But there are things that Twitter doesn’t do well that other services can improve on. In turn, one network’s new features or enhancements puts the pressure on other services to improve. This type of competition has driven capitalism for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it’s not working on the same level for the microblogging world, even while services continually roll out new features.
It would not be good for the microblogging community if Twitter were to become the Kleenex of our world. Being the most popular doesn’t mean that you are the best. There are plenty of other fantastic services out there that have so much to offer but risk being shuffled aside due to the popularity of a single platform. Without competition from the likes of Plurk, Pownce, Brightkite, etc, we lose the appreciation we have for each of their strengths. Since no one service can (or should) do it all, we definitely benefit from having multiple platforms. What’s even better is when they integrate with each other to provide a more seamless experience for the users.
To many people, Twitter is synonymous with microblogging. It’s these people that we’re trying to reach, hopefully to explain and prove that there’s more to microblogging than just Twitter. Even though Twitter generates a sizable portion of our news here, we understand the importance of other platforms. We know that there’s space for solid, reliable, usable platforms. I look forward to the innovation and successes of other platforms as they help drive change and ingenuity in our world.
Rob is one of the founders of Microblink. His interests include how people are using microblogs and the community growing around them.
Mike writes and edits for Microblink day-in and day-out. He is known as the marketing guy and handles most of the microblogging accounts.
Mark writes development-oriented posts as well as news items. He's not afraid to dive headfirst into technical topics for the sake of the team.
Great post. I think Twitter is definitely setup great to do this but not sure if they have reached “genericized trademark” status yet. I haven’t heard someone say “tweet that” when referring to Plurk or Pownce yet. The other day someone told me they were going to “google that” real quick and they actually went and used Yahoo!. I’d say Google is at the point of being the genericized trademark of search but as for Twitter it might have a bit more to go yet.
You’re right, it’s not quite there yet but I think it’s certainly heading that way. Most of the buzz I heard about “creating your own Twitter” was surrounding the release of Twingr last week. It pointed out that many people are already genericizing microblogging.
How much is your twitter profile worth? http://tweetvalue.com
Yup, it definitely is the Kleenex. For months I have been starting all of my talks, presentations and meetings by saying exactly that, to prequalify it. “When I say ‘Twitter’ I want you to think about microsharing as a general category. I believe that in the future, many platforms will interoperate and serve this basic function.
@Laura With a brand becoming the face of a tool/medium, it also becomes easier for the audience to understand. People may have heard or used Twitter, but if you introduce it as microsharing or microblogging, you may still get puzzled looks if you don’t attach a definition along with it.
I also look forward to the day when all of these networks are able to interact with each other. The way I see it, it will become as distributed as email and Twitter, Plurk, Pownce et al will be the new Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, etc.