Twitter Experience

Twitter has increasingly become an important platform for anyone who uses social media. There are numerous aspects that make Twitter a great tool for casual use, or business. Having completed the project in class, the class was able to see its uses at its full potential.

Any social media is a great tool for marketing – especially Twitter. Its simplicity is something that makes it so great, especially with its restriction of 140 characters per tweet. Using such a small amount of words makes the author get the point, and not have any fluff. For business trying to sell a product, they are able to essentially have free advertising. Their tweets are able to be seen by anyone of wishes to look at it. However, this can be a bit of a difficulty though because the market can become saturated once everything is posting, and trying to gain a bigger reach everyone else. With this though, it can push the author to become more creative and thoughtful.

In Brett’s experience running the Twitter account for Marco’s Italian Deli, he has been able to learn about how to market their name and product. A large part of what he has learned is that communication with the people who follow you is crucial. It is very easy for customers to be able to voice their problems and concerns, so you have to be careful with how to deal with them. More than anything, it is about customer satisfaction. Besides that, it is important to be transparent, but still some sort personality with everything. People want to be entertained, and don’t care for dry information being fed to them repeatedly.

From a journalistic point of view, Twitter is huge. Before social media, the immediacy of presenting the news did not exist. There used to be a waiting period in which the information was delivered to the public. However, we are now in a time in which news can be delivered to the public in real time. A tweet can be sent and in the public domain in a matter of seconds – which can be a blessing and a curse. On one side, it keeps everyone up to date and timely, but can also make for inaccuracies. Everyone expects to have information almost immediately, which can be tough for journalists to do the best job of reporting they can.

As a politician, Twitter can be useful because it is an easy for the people to learn about they are working on, or what their policies are. In this year’s presidential campaign, Twitter has been critical. Candidates are able to present their policies, or general ideas to the public. Along with that, it is an easy way to make statements about issues they are facing. However, this can make for unnecessary banter which has become somewhat of a distraction. From a journalistic, and political standpoint, both are important for showing personality and being transparent.

In the past year, there were many new stories that Twitter was able to communicate to the public their importance. One of the most important events were the attacks in Paris by ISIS. One of the most important aspects was being able to find out who was safe. People could send a tweet out letting their loved ones knowing that they were safe, and not harmed by the attacks. The general public was able to be informed on what was happening as the information was being brought forward. However, there was failure behind this event – that being the backlash Muslims received for the event. Many uneducated people were able to voice their hatred for Muslims – a very cruel act. While Twitter is great because it gives people a voice, sometimes there are people whose voice does not deserve to be voiced.

Another event were Twitter was able to be a big communicator were the riots in Baltimore, Maryland. During the riots, protesters took to the streets to voice their anger at the surge in police brutality. While unorganized protests took place, a large amount violence ensued, which was harmful to the general public. Twitter was able to communicate what was happening, as well as who was safe, and what to do in order to stay safe. This potentially saved lives, and kept people out of harm’s way. However, the only downside is that it may have made it easier for protesters to organize and come together to make their violent protests larger.

A third event that Twitter was able to communicate an important event was the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. This having been an important motion for the United State, people were able to educate one another in this important moment in American history. For people that rely on social media for their news, this was a case in which so many were talking about the topic, that didn’t have to watch the news – the topic was trending and was able to reach a large amount of people. Just as the last topic discussed, the only downside was that people whose opinions should never see the light of day was able to reach the general public. Homophobes were able to voice their opinion about the topic, which was quite unpleasant.

Brett chose to follow Red Bull, Ashton Kutcher, and the American Red Cross. He chose to follow red bull because their involvement with extreme sports is very entertaining. Ashton Kutcher was chosen because Brett knew that he was funny, and also politically driven. The Red Cross was chosen because they are known for being a great non-profit organization whose history goes back very far.

Twitter is different from blogging because it breaks everything down. The thoughts projected have to be much more precise and to the point – there is little room for play. With blogging, you are able to do into great depth. Communication is also very different because Twitter allows for a great deal of communication, while blogging does not allow for much communication.