If you were to ask me last fall what a tweet was, I would have told you it was the sound those cartoon bluebirds produce as they buzz about, hanging Cinderella's laundry. This summer, however, as part of my job doing advertising for a Kansas City museum, I quickly became familiar with the act and the vast cyber world that accompanies it.
At first, I was skeptical. With all popular culture phenomena that have occurred in the past four years, it seems I have always been six months behind. Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love?" Great song. But by the time I had started listening to it last winter, people's ears were bleeding from it being overplayed. In fact, it seems the only pop culture trends I have been ahead of are flannel and vampire movies.
This time, at the urging of my employer, it was going to be different. Much like the experience a literary fan has when they first pick up a Hemingway novel, I quickly realized the incredibly potent capabilities of short sentences. Within days I was connected to more than 50 institutions and individuals who, with little effort, were receiving event updates and links to my museum's Web site pages. Inversely, I was receiving real time updates from newspapers, traffic information and random bits of information from hundreds of people in whom I was moderately interested.
For the first time I realized the tremendous impact Twitter has had not only on the social world, but on the business and non-profit sector as well. In essence, the success of Twitter and other microblogging sites has dealt one of the finishing blows to the traditional press release that once dominated the world of PR and advertising. Now, instead of businesses sending costly printed press releases to news publications in hopes of getting published, they can send a single sentence with a link to thousands of publications with the click of a button.
Because of these advantages, Twitter has fast become one of the world's most widely used social media, gaining both high usership and high praise along the way. Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster's School of Business and Technology, called co-founder Jack Dorsey's Twitter, "The Gutenberg press and Bell telephone of our generation," in an article on PR Newswire. In Twitter's case, instead of spreading thousands of copies of Martin Luther's "95 Theses," millions of users are posting 140 characters.
A Time Magazine article heralded Twitter as "the medium of the movement," as it was used to organize the election protests that spilled onto the streets of Tehran this summer. According to a BusinessWeek article, more than 50 CEOs, ranging from Virgin Group's Richard Branson to HD Net's Mark Cuban, now use Twitter to connect with employees and customers.
There is little doubt Twitter has had a profound impact, along with the rest of the emerging social media, in our world today, and most of it is positive. If I can learn to use it, I'm sure anyone can. However, before I give my complete endorsement and send you on your tweeting way, it is important to remember that Twitter is only effective if used with direction and with caution.
Although Twitter offers both businesses and individual's great opportunity, it can also be the source of unwanted anxiety. As with all social media, you need to keep in mind that what you put on the internet is, in fact, public information.
One needs only turn to the now infamous "Cisco Fatty" tweet incident to learn this. Job seeking seniors be forewarned, this may be painful to read. In March, "Cisco Fatty," a would-be Cisco employee enthusiastically tweeted, "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."
Tim Levad, at Cisco saw this and responded, "Who is the hiring manager? I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web."
While this cautionary tale, retrieved from the "Cisco Fatty" Web site created in her honor, is few and far between, it is something to consider before you venture out into the digital unknown of social media.
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Overall, I think Twitter and other social media are valuable assets that are both free and effective, if used properly. While I would not say it has had the same level of impact as Gutenberg's press, I do think it has been very profound.
If you are interested in using Twitter, then by all means go ahead and create your account today. Just do so with common sense. I would also like to take this opportunity to ask the 12 adult film stars who I blocked from following my museum's Twitter this summer, to stop to harassing me. It's a museum!
William Hoythoytws@muohio.edu
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