Mainstream Media still a trusted soruce over micro-blogging

Mumbai terrorist attacks had Twitter users twitering about the attacks at a lightning pace. This same pattern of lightning response can be traced to Obama’s win earlier this month. It can also be traced to the China earthquake as well. I must point out that both Asia and the U.S. have adopted similar uses for Twitter in major incidences.

Twitter outstripped the mainstream media in terms of delivery of news and many were proclaiming that citizen journalism via micro blogging was the way to go. It’s interesting to note that CNN actually used the photo sharing site Flickr to compliment it’s reporting. Google map was also used to share the location of the building.

While the role of micro blogging is ever more prominent in delivering news fast, it tends to repeat the same things over and over without any insights or additional information. The 140 word limit is a double edged sword. It allows swift spreading of the message but it lacks the details of any major incident.

In all instances, the starting point of any new discussions on microblogging came from mainstream media. While I’m an advocate of web2.0, mainstream media still has it’s place in providing credible news. Deeper insights can be found via citizen journalism by longer blog postings.

For now i see micro-blogging playing the role of the message spreader in our society. Quick lightning approach of the general topic of a major incident. Any details will be found in mainstream media which will simulate thought process amongst opinions leaders to share with the rest of the blogosphere.

Do you have a different viewpoint has to how micro-blogging is being used?

Has micro-blogging changed the way we proccess information?

I just did a pretty long post on DBS to imrpove it’s customer service via Web 2.0? and i realized that this post might be a bit wordy. Plurk and Twitter have definitely changed the way i digest information and my attention span to long blog post is to go to the shortest paragraph or the first few lines of a long paragraph.

It’s like there is an internal filter that blocks out anything longer than 140 words. Is it just me or is it true for everyone now? (And this was true even for topics that interested me a great deal!)

Plurking!!!!!!!

Another microbloging tool Plurk, and everyone’s raving about it!!! Thank god I’m not too late to join the crowd… I joined Twitter pretty late but funny enough, the people in my IM are not in it as yet… Maybe i’m turning geek and nobody is with me…

So jumping into Plurk, what is it? Its similar to twitter and is another microblog. There are various differences between the 2 other than the interface. The timeline concept is really neat as Daryl mentions, is great. Missing out on tweets can seem to be a headache, its like an unchecked google reader and you just miss out on stuff cause u’r lazy. Daryl also mentions other reasons such as more organic and intimate conversations.

To me? I think the fact that you can share short videos and pics are pretty cool. Plus there’s that karma points going on, kindda like a game to ‘unlock’ certain stuff… I want a dog for my Plurk buddy!!!

To find out more about Plurk, go here!

But the great part is that Twitter no longer hogs the micro blogging space… Which means more avenues for advertising or PR to get their message across. Pardon my ignorance (and laziness), i only know of a few brands using micro blogging which i posted here and how well they do it.

Considering our pretty high twitter rate in Singapore, shouldn’t Plurk be taking off as well since Twitter is always down??

I mean, look at the extra goodies Plurk is able to offer! I also mentioned about brands engaging consumers by using their own twitters… How about hiring a guy using twitter (Like hiring a blogger, but check out this guy auctioning himself!) to engage your brand? Is that gonna be more effective than doing an “advertorial” for a product review? Its got more conversations going since its more intimate… What do you think?

Additionally, with plurk and twitter, are we gonna see another revenue war about to spark off?? Like social networking sites, Facebook versus the ‘open social’ world!

These are things which i gotta know, so I would love any1′s view on this or any examples of a possible ‘war’?

Enjoy your weekend and do add me on Plurk at

http://www.plurk.com/user/markkhoo

Twitter

There have been dozens of discussions on the rise of micro blogging and if Twitter will be the next step in communications or will it be just ‘another phase’. I think its interesting to see how Businessweek have analyzed Twitter. From the possibility of Twitter being around to serious in depth questions as to its uses and why it matters.

I don’t really wanna dive into that since so many discussions have been going on, rather, in order to see if it will be here to stay, i guess the best way would be to know what is currently being used for.

So what is twitter in case you don’t know, here’s Wikipedia’s definition of it.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message serviceinstant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. (SMS),

Great, now that we know, let’s take a look at how its being used. Citing from Kevin, check the chart across the different geographical regions and how popular twitter is in each region.

You can read more about the stats and why China isn’t larger. But its interesting to see Japan commanding such a huge share of the pie! Singapore ain’t half bad considering we’re so small…

So who uses Twitter and what do they do it for?

I think Lifehacker provides some great examples and possible expansions on Twitter and how it can be used.

Users generally use it as another communications tool. Like an SMS or IM, it serves its purpose for a quick update to friends. And i think the fact that it has such a concise use, it would only grow bigger in the mobile market due to the different behavious of mobile online experience as compared to PC online experience.

Businesses have huge potentials for it. For branding purposes, we need look no further than polictics with Obama and Hillary using Twitter to respond and ‘market’ themselves to voters. Of course, the usual brands have been active on it. Some use it for customer support like HRBlock, others use it for building consumer relationships like Dell,(Amazing how they’re so good at building consumer relations with social media now). Marketing Voix has an interesting way for brands to build themselves and not follow Marketing Guru Seth Godin on using Twitter.

But i think what is interesting is how Twitter has such quick response time. The China earthquake is a great example of social media outpacing traditional media. The arguments here were obvious, Twitter managed to be faster in response to the tremors than journalists but journalists were able to come out with the facts faster. I think its a great chance for traditional and social media to increase the response time to a crisis and that’s where we can see a convergence of the 2 types of media.

So now that we’ve seen the explosion of Twitter and how its being used, will this just be a phase and we’ll eventually join the other camp where we go “Enough already! I wanna know what u’re doing but not every damn second of it!”

Haha, i’m fully convienced that Twitter will stay and i’ll end off with a quote froma twitter fan in response to Mathieu Balez, a Web entrepreneur, knocked the mundane nature of Twitter posts and the voyeurism of readers.

“Yeah sure,Twitter will die. Just as text messages, mobile phones, blogs, the Internet…”

Or are you still with the other camp? Share with me!