Investigative Tweeting

              Twitter has become more than just a social media site that allows you to connect with your friends. It has become a platform for business, news releases, advertising, marketing, and more while connecting people in ways other sites can’t. The constant and quick updates with twitter allows its users to engage directly with the source. Aside from those mentioned, twitter overall isn’t just a social media site or a blog, it’s something other sites aren’t and that’s what makes it so different.

               Twitter’s many uses is what makes the site so beneficial depending on who’s using it. For example, many people do not sit and watch the news anymore because society has become accustomed to cell phones and social media. This happened because it is easier and more convenient than sitting and watching the news. It allows people to be mobile while receiving their news. Twitter benefits from this convenience because of its speed and access. Twitter verifies certain accounts to place confidence in users that a specific account is legit. In doing so, these verified accounts can reach its audience faster on twitter than any other social media site. Twitter is meant to be used frequently with constant updates on a variety of subjects. Its informative platform is what makes it so beneficial in a journalistic and political aspect. The ease of quick updates, links to breaking stories, and live streams on highly publicized topics such as presidential debates or large court cases, puts the users of these verified accounts in a perfect position to keep their followers updated on topics they follow. From an organizational standpoint, businesses use Twitter as a marketing and advertising tool to target a specific audience or gain competitive advantage. The major advantage organizations have while using Twitter is the direct contact with the consumers. Users can mention organizations while attaching their experience with organization’s product or ask questions directly to gain more insight before a purchase. Although organizations have accounts with other social media sites, Twitter provides quick responses and the most interactions of them all.

               Elected officials, sports pages, and electronic companies are followed frequently. People follows these pages to remain up to date, keep up with changes, and be notified of new products releasing soon. Following pages such as Samsung can be intriguing in note of their recent downfall in the cell phone market. By following Samsung’s page, insight is gained on how the company will recover and how they plan to deal with the competition in light of their latest mishap. Sports pages such as the NBA, NFL, or MLB are constantly being followed due to the recurring changes throughout the seasons. At any point in a sports season a major change or injury can occur that can have a large effect on a professional team or a well-known player.  Sports and politics are always topics that people want to be up to date on. Keeping up with politics is especially important because it can affect a person’s life in a major way. Following politics closer to home such as a mayor or governor can be beneficial because the information being released is directly related to the resident.

               Twitter differentiates itself from blogging and other social media in the way it’s used in an interactive sense. It provides a more personal feel for users as opposed to Facebook or Instagram where the updates are less frequent and users feel like a spectator more than anything else.  In a personal sense, Twitter is used to state an opinion, give personal experiences, or share a memory, however, its 140 character limit forces users to be cut throat and straight to the point unlike other social media and blogs. Other social sites and blogs give users an unlimited amount of characters to post about anything. Blogging is usually done as a means to express a feeling toward something or report on something that may not receive heavy coverage but is still relatively important. The major difference between blogging and tweeting is its primary use and purpose.

               During the presidential election, Twitter was used as a news source. There were constant updates from all major news networks as well as from the personal accounts on both candidates. During this time, Twitter had become a platform for news on the election. Twitter provided the convenience of live streaming debates which allowed users to tune into the debate while still using the mobile app. Twitter capitalized from this by providing users with the most relevant information as it occurred instead of leaving users to be overloaded with information when watching the news.

               Twitter is also used to raise awareness regarding specific subjects. When a group of teenaged girls went missing in D.C Twitter was used to cycle their photos around in case anyone had seen them. The constant retweets and brief information given lead to some of these young girls being returned home. The awareness that was being raised in regards to this situation displayed the success in using Twitter as a platform for the issue.

               Twitter was also used as a marketing and advertising tool followed by the incident that occurred on United Airlines. Similar to the teenage girls in D.C., the video of the incident kept cycling to keep the public informed on what was happening. The issue of an overbooked flight soon became a case that involved race and discrimination on the victim’s behalf. As this was occurring, other airlines sought this as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage. Many marketing strategies were used including Southwest Airlines tweet that stated “we beat our competitors’ prices, not you”. Instances like this occur more frequently than people notice where competitors utilize the competition’s downfall as an advantage.

               Twitter is more than just a social site and an angle for marketing, it is most commonly used for reporting. Although twitter is usually the first to release the news, because it is so widespread, fictional facts are tweeted very often. For example, while the Boston marathon explosions were occurring, tweets were being generated from trusted sources and users who were using the tragedy as an opportunity to gain retweets. This incident revealed the flaws of Twitter and that just because its first doesn’t make it facts. A similar outcome occurred in Egypt during protests in Tahrir square in regards to the role Twitter played. Twitter was used as a means to remain organized and in unity with other protesters fighting the same cause. As a result, the same platform that had brought them together eventually tore them apart. Twitter can be an advantage as well as a downfall depending on its use. With Twitter being so accessible and a platform for open opinion, it is often difficult to separate the facts from the fiction.