Introduction

Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton, a columnist and reporter for The New York Times, tells the true tale of how Twitter, which started out as a gamble of a start up company, became to be the social media powerhouse website it is today in just over six years time. Described as being “a true story of money, power, friendship, and betrayal,” Nick Bilton was able to tell this detailed story by doing vast investigative reporting. He contacted hundreds of sources such as former and current Twitter employees and collected various documents and internal emails in order to piece together this story. Although this book does seem to function simply as a story about the development of Twitter, there is one implication repeatedly mentioned throughout the novel that makes it clear how Twitter was able to grow over the years. This would be the influence that affluencers had over the total number of new Twitter signups that occurred over that time. The book does at times provide very basic numbers and facts in regards to increases in new signups and Twitter traffic following new celebrity usage, however it does not provide enough statistical data in order to fully convince the reader. However, once those facts that are presented in the book are supplemented with charts and numbers from outside sources, the reader can be convinced that affluencers did have a significant impact on Twitter becoming the successful social media tool it is today.