In Stephen Fry we trust… Twitter

The mention of Twitter during the ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross” show brought with it another round of ‘mainstream tipping point’ discussions specifically related to Twitter in the UK. Host and comedian Jonathan Ross who returned to the BBC, having been suspended for 3 months discussed Twitter with guest comedian Stephen Fry, both of whom twitter regularly. Ross then decided to ask guest Tom Cruise whether he twittered. Receiving only a response of “who me?” before the show swiftly moved on.

Last week, Philip Schofield, co-presenter of ‘This Morning’, started the show with a ‘proof of identity’, showing his followers that @Scofe is indeed Philip Schofield on Twitter. He then began to sing praises of Twitter, at which point co-presenter Fern Britton asked, “do you have shares in this”, Schofield vigorously responded, “no! it’s free”.

Four months ago, someone signed up under the name Russell Brand, a famously controversial British comic. Today, the actual Russell Brand signed up to Twitter, which was confirmed by Jonathan Ross. Within minutes he has racked up thousands of followers, under the name @rustyrockets.

So here in the UK, Twitter is beginning to take off, there are about 7 good examples (that we know of) of people who use it. Those being Jonathan Ross, Stephen Fry, Alan Carr, Jimmy Carr, Russell Brand, Philip Schofield and billionaire business-man Richard Branson. All of which (excluding Schofield & Branson) are comedians. Stephen Fry, as one of the cleverest men on British TV is an extremely authoritative figure, his endorsement of Twitter will undoubtedly attract a different genre of user.

Clearly 2009 is the year of Twitter, any website with an entire ‘for Dummies’ book (is everybody making money out of Twitter except Twitter?) must be something special, the book is set to release mid-2009. Find us @DoesWhat.