Twitter's Tipping Point?

 I was first introduced to Twitter in 2008 while working for a media outlet in Washington, D.C. My editor, a wise newsman (and the person who signed my paychecks) predicted that it would be the next big thing and encouraged us all to sign up for accounts. At this time I was just really getting into Facebook. I had no idea that two years later my career would revolve around these two social networking mediums.

  I guess that's why this video is so funny to me. Three years ago most of us didn't know what Twitter was. Few of us knew that it would reach the heights that it's reached. This got me wondering when was Twitter's tipping point. At what point did Twitter go from being this crazy fad that no one but tech geeks cared about to the hot way to market and sell products, follow celebrities, and communicate with friends. Twitter has more than 100 million users. Companies have had to jump on board and not only admit this is powerful platform for communication, but for their advertising and marketing to consumers. Media have begun to rely on it for real time news dispersal and consumer engagement When did this happen?

 I can think of two big moments that really cemented Twitter as a force. The first was the Hudson River plane crash, when heroic Captain Sully Sullenberger safely landed the flight in the river with no deaths or major injuries. People tweeted photos and real-time updates that scooped even the media. It was the first time that we saw that this medium as a viable source for sending out necessary information to the masses.

  The other is when Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to see who could get to a million followers first. Kutcher boldly challenged the international network to a duel to see who could hit that million target and he won. The publicity garnered by the "popularity contest" had the dual impact of adding a big surge of followers to the social networking site and publicity and attention to something many people were previously unaware of.

  Those are my theories, what do you think? At what point did Twitter really gain momentum? What was the point in time when it went from fad to phenomenon?