Twitter has changed the game as was stated in a previous post. The site has plenty of positive and negative parts to it. I have found it to be very interesting, and unlike any website ever before. I heard about it for years now and was pressured to join. I always resisted and declined the invitations, because I just did not believe the hype. Now I can see why the world went crazy over Twitter and is largely still crazy about it today. Twitter is not only a form of social media. Twitter is so much more.
The rate at which information can be passed via Twitter has made it a very effective source for news as well. people love to know something, anything, before anyone else does. Any form of gossip or any story that people want to talk about has the attention of the masses. This makes Twitter the optimum place for all current information. Twitter is instantaneous. Twitter operates faster than any other news source you can find. I have a friend that sent me a text message about Santorum putting an end to his campaign, 15 minutes after I saw it on Twitter. It reminded me of those AT&T Commercials: "That was so 15 seconds ago." I almost sent my friend a message back similar to AT&T, but instead thought better of it.
Twitter can be used as a news source as every major company in news is on Twitter in some capacity. One must be wary of false identities, however. Users that are authentic celebrities, news sources, organizations, etc. will have a blue checkmark next to their name. This helps to minimize and avoid the imposters that are out there. News sources on Twitter must also be responsible. With information at our fingertips and the masses only a tweet away, it is very easy to be the first to break a story. However they must not sacrifice accuracy and checking their sources.
Twitter also allows people to connect with celebrities. Many famous people have their own Twitter and manage it as well. This allows the world to see what the celebrity is thinking about, what they want to post about, what they are doing today, and so much more. This makes it increasingly important for all those in the public eye to be careful what they put on Twitter. Countless athletes have posted something their team found inappropriate and were forced to take the post or image down from Twitter. As former NFL coach and current ESPN analyst Herm Edwards would say, "Only you can hit send athletes, Don't hit send!"
Twitter has a use for organizations as well. Any organization that wants to gain a following can go onto Twitter an increase their fanbase, viewership, clientele, etc. Twitter is wildly popular and this means that millions of eyes are watching what goes on. My own personal experience has made me realize just how addicting Twitter can be. I was limited to follow 5 organizations and I wanted to follow so many more organizations and people. The desire to increase what I can see on Twitter is likely shared by the majority of the Twitter community. An organization can put their information and ideas out there without fear; they will be noticed. Twitter makes it very easy to find more "nouns" to follow.
I chose to follow 5 organizations. The first I followed was the Green Bay Packers. I would feel guilty if I had picked any other Twitter account first. Their are many interactive polls and trivia questions and debates held by the Green Bay Packers Twitter. I enjoyed keeping up with what they had to offer.
The second organization I followed was ESPN because I am a sports junkie. I love everything about sports and ESPN encompasses just that. I found that ESPN retweets many posts from their TV shows to their main ESPN account, making it very easy to follow the people and shows at ESPN that I like.
My third organization I went after was The Huffington Post. They are a news source I truly enjoy and find on the cutting edge of everything. keeping up with "The Huff" is nearly impossible. They have so many tweets about all things news. I was very impressed with their content and use of links to stories, photos, etc.
My fourth organization to follow was IMDB. They are my go to source for all things movie related. I find it really convenient that they use Twitter to talk about upcoming movies and events. The only drawback is that the IMDB Twitter seemed to have very few tweets. This may have been a result of comparing IMDB to "The Huff" in frequency of tweets. Perhaps there is more on the IMDB Twitter than I was able to see at a glance.
My final organization of the 5 I followed is LiveNation. This Twitter account was a big disappointment. I could not find anything close to what I wanted to. I looked around for upcoming concert promos and came up empty. All LiveNation seemed to have were posts from recent shows that already happened or a section about starving unknown artists. They also seemed to have some tweets about an upcoming country music show featuring several country artists that I've never heard of (which isn't that hard because that genre is nails on a chalkboard to me).
Twitter is the big fish in the Internet pond as far as I'm concerned. Twitter is abbreviated information that leaves room only for details and links to more information. Facebook is bogged down by advertisments and itineraries for someone's day you likely do not care about. Twitter gives facts and basic information. Facebook gives emotion and reasons. Twitter is much faster and much more direct than Facebook. Half the time I am on Facebook I become bombarded by advertisements and game invites. Twitter leaves this nonsense behind but brings with it one troubling detail.
Twitter makes the users want to sit and watch and wait for more information to be posted about anything. The content matters little. I envision thousands of people staring at their screens just waiting for something to gossip about like an enormous band of high school cheerleaders ready to talk about whatever they can get their hands on.
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