Last week, Biz Stone was on the Howard Stern show, and shared some of the background of Twitter and his view on it.  Even for people who are absolute non-fans of the Stern Show, this was a great interview!  Biz is one of the three co-founders of Twitter (including Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey).  I thought I’d share some of the info, straight from Biz himself, for those of you who don’t subscribe to satellite radio (which I recommend!).  To listen to the whole show (it’s about 45 minutes but worth it) click here.  Thanks to Matthew Keys for posting (@producermatthew on Twitter, www.matthewkeys.net).

• Twitter was developed because the three co-founders were involved in a company that they weren’t emotionally invested in, so they wanted to develop something more fun and
• Twitter started in 2006.  At that point, Facebook was still only for college kids.
• The original idea of Twitter was to build onto mobile texting, which was built into every mobile phone, and was already big in Europe.
• The reason Twitter only allows 140 characters is  so that the entire tweet plus your name (up to 20 characters) fits into the 160 characters on a text
• The 140 character limit forces tweeters to be brief and say something interesting without losing readers
• Twitter has become “following your interests” – Biz Stone
• On Twitter, as opposed to Facebook, you don’t need to know someone to follow them – there’s no “request” for friendship.
• Picture posting on Twitter is getting easier – if you use the iPhone, there’s a camera icon to share photos.
• The “quote tweet” feature allows people to say why they’re retweeting someone’s tweet.  It’s now available on iPhone and iPad apps.
• Twitter has “become this living, breathing thing that needs what it needs when it needs it”.  The three cofounders actually “trade off” responsibility for the company depending on what it needs at the time, and whose strength that is.
• Twitter’s cofounders turn down many acquisition offers because they feel there is a lot of potential to create global impact and build Twitter into a real, lucrative business.

I’ve come to love Twitter – it’s where I get my news, research current trends in business, and follow my favourite entertainers.  It’s a great way to network with other with similar interests and develop your personal brand.

Follow me at my personal twitter account.