I have now been on Twitter for five years…

Twitter actually started six years ago and probably like most people joined when it became “big” after SXSW in 2007.

I didn’t use it much in the first year, partly as there were very few people on it, more so because I was using Jaiku a similar service available back then.

In the five years of using the service I have posted over 26,000 tweets and have over 3000 followers. I currently follow just under 500 people and in the main I try and keep it to under 500 otherwise I feel that the stream becomes too quick and loaded.

In the main looking at Twitter I usually use it to post links about my blogs, links to news and sites I have found interesting, photographs (usually via Instagram) and importantly conversations.

My pattern of tweeting follows what I am doing. When I am at work in the office I do find I rarely tweet, whereas when I am travelling or at an event the amount of postings I make really increases. At events I will tweet about the presentations, discuss and also post links related to the sessions I am in.

I have a reputation for tweeting about coffee and in reality it only accounts for 3% of my tweets! Though a day after joining Twitter I did post a tweet about coffee!

I did once say Twitter would die… and in reality I do still think that may happen. If you look at the number of mainstream and traditional media accounts who in the main use Twitter for broadcasting I can see some people leaving Twitter as others disengage. Social networks exist because they are social and only work when you have a community. Without a community, they will wither and die. If key influencers leave Twitter then their communities will disengage with the service and either follow others to a new place or an existing service.

This is something we have seen before. When Jaiku stopped their SMS integration, and also stopped new sign ups, the community on the service began to disintegrate and people began to move to Twitter. Today we can see how some people are disengaging with Facebook and moving to Google+ and Twitter.

At this time though it would appear that Twitter is still going strong and I can’t yet see myself moving away (just yet). So are you still on Twitter?

I am surprised that not only is Twitter still going after five years, but I am still engaging with it. Will I still be on it after another five years… I have no idea!