Twitter to the Rescue

Twitter to the Rescue

Before this semester began I did not quite understand the power of Twitter. Dr, Samra Bufkins and the DART incident that occurred this past Tuesday, February 7^th, have opened my eyes to some of the social network’s capabilities.

Going into JOUR 4460 I had a Twitter account; however, I was not an active user. I would even say that I possibly tweeted about once every two weeks, and I certainly did not utilize Twitter as a news source. Like most social butterflies, I stuck with Facebook to stay up-to-date with my friends and used the nifty CNN application on my smartphone for my news source.

I know you might be thinking, “How aloof is she”? A lot would be the correct answer. Scary, I know, considering that my major is public relations. I should be more on top of up-and-coming networks and definitely more in tune with what is going on around me. These are some goals that I am currently working on because I know I will not be successful otherwise.

During these first few weeks of class I have learned so much about Twitter. While it has been information overload; it has also been very beneficial.

I have learned that Twitter:

•   Serves as a great networking opportunity
•   Can be a helpful tool to publicize your work
•  Can be an excellent news source

 Networking on Twitter, in my opinion, is much more valuable than attempting to on Facebook. Yes, you can “like” a company’s page on Faebook, periodically visit their page for updates, and see what others have to say and engage in conversation. In my opinon Twitter executes all of these things better. For one, it seems more professional. In the words of Dr. Bufkins, “There is no emotional attachment on Twitter as there is on Facebook.” You follow companies, professionals, some friends and comical users. There is always an option of following the tweets other users who show up in your feed. There are a vast amount of professionals who are utilizing this social network and can be an asset to you if you are tweeting solid and credible information.

When it comes to publicizing your work Twitter lends a helping hand. If you have a good base of followers who in turn have a good network of followers, once you post something (like a link to your blog) it has the opportunity to go viral. Twitter can act like a domino effect by people retweeting and sharing your post. You can easily gain exposure. If the tweet shows up in the right persons feed you could potentially land yourself a gig, job, connection, etc.

As far as Twitter being a good news source, I definitely saw it during class this past week. Had it not been for Twitter there is a chance I would not have known about the DART shooting until later that night or the next day. Our class knew about the incident almost immediately. Twitter users whether it is a citizen, reporter, or news station have a sense of urgency and deliver news just about as the event occurs. If that does not say a good news source, I don’t know what does.

I am very thankful to have learned so much about this particular social network because nowI know the value and power it carries. To be honest it was my least favorite, but I have more respect for it than Facebook.

Here is a link to a graph that shows interesting stats about Twitter: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/35-key-twitter-statistics-infographic-012384.php