Defending Twitter

Defending Twitter

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Adam Goldberg

I found myself in a conversation at my 9-5 yesterday defending Twitter. I was explaining to some co-workers, who don’t really get “The Twitter.” I can go on for hours about why I use Twitter, but I’m looking to my readers to see what you think.

How the conversation started…

As a disclaimer, these co-workers are not in the marketing department and aren’t social media savvy. The apartment management company I work for is now using Twitter to reach out to tweeters who tweet phrases like “Moving to Atlanta.” The strategy is a work in progress, but the idea is to follow those who tweet that, but also test tweeting at them to make ourselves available for questions. By tweeting at them, our company will be at the top of their minds when looking for apartments.

The idea sounded really great to my co-workers, and I’ll share more on that strategy in a later post. After I explained how our company uses Twitter, I found myself having to defend Twitter, as the consensus of the group was “I don’t get the Twitter.” This response caused me to go in to Twitter defense mode and I listed ways Twitter is awesome.

Why Twitter is #Awesome

. It’s real time and instant

. It’s a news outlet

. It’s an aggregate of everything I’m interested in

. A connection to celebrities

. An inside look into companies

. A customer service outlet

. A way to find interesting content

. Crowd source your purchasing decisions

. Trending Topics

. Open to connecting with strangers

. Local Traffic Updates

. What are you reasons?

I’m sure there are more reasons that you can come up with, but I do have a standard story or two that I use when defending Twitter’s honor.

Twitter Defense Story # 1

A few years back when I was browsing my Twitter feed…CNN tweeted a BREAKING NEWS alert about a vehicle in Times Square that was suspected of having a bomb in it. There was also a hashtag associated with the Tweet. In real time, I could see what others are saying and experiencing in NY while this news broke. I was also able to text my friend who works in NY to avoid the area, as she hadn’t heard of the news as quickly as I did. Thanks Twitter!

Twitter Defense Story #2

This may be a little sillier of a use case, but I look through the trending topics from time to time, and Cool Runnings was trending. I clicked on the Topic and saw that everyone was Tweeting about Cool Runnings and how it was on TBS, which lead me to tune in. Thanks Twitter!

Twitter is an engaging community

Before writing this post, I wanted to get feedback from Twitter on this topic.

I remember hearing about the breaking news of the killing of Osama Bin Laden on Facebook, but the news did break on Twitter. Bin Laden’s neighbor tweeted about the noise of helicopters above his ahead according to this Yahoo article. The idea that the world found out about this via social media blows my mind, but my mind is even more blown that his neighbor tweeted about it unknowingly.

I have two goals with this post. I want my readers to be able to share this with those skeptical with Twitter, but I’m also looking for you to share why you think Twitter is #awesome.

What is Twitter?

I was asked to do an introduction to Twitter for the training department at my company. You can see those slides below. Even if you struggle with the idea of Twitter, comment below with why that is.

Article advocating for Twitter

Howard Stern Live Tweets airing of Private Parts

Hillary Clinton’s Big News Breaks on Twitter

Twitter Breaks News of Whitney Houston Death

See Also:

 

Categories: Twitter