The Power of Twitter

Still a Twitter hater? Not me…I’m a believer.

It was two days ago that I began to see the future (and existing) potential of the power of Twitter (the microblogging social networking site that is taking the Web 2.0 world by storm). I heard the tail end of a news report on the radio, and wanted to confirm that what I thought I heard was correct. It was a big story, so I knew most of the local media would be covering it. But I wanted to know NOW. (I must’ve been raised on MTV.) I wasn’t about to wait another eight whole minutes for the next radio update. So I thought, “How can I find out immediately?”

I didn’t jump on the Internet and go to a website of a local news outlet, conduct a keyword search, and hope for the relevant results. That’s so 2006. I picked up my phone, opened the Twitter app, and did a quick scroll. Sure enough, two of the media outlets I’m following on Twitter had the answer right away. I clicked on the link they provided and got right to my story.

We thought news-on-Web was a departure for newspapers. How different is this? Twitter is immediate; it’s faster than now. Twitter is direct, and categorized into small, digestible, byte-sized bits of information. It’s easy, and portable, and even fun. Kudos to both of my hometown newspapers for embracing it and effectively maximizing its value.

So, color me a Twitter-phile.  And, yes, call me a geek.