Twitter

The Twitter Project might have been the easiest project yet. I mean I definitely have déjà vu saying so, because I feel as if I’ve written these exact words on another blog post. This one came with such ease because of how familiar I am with Twitter as a whole.

            On my current personal Twitter account, I have 21.3K tweets. This is how much I’ve tweets since I began college about 3 years ago. I had an original account of maybe 15K tweets, but I deleted that towards the tail end of high school. I don’t tweet as heavily as I one did, sometimes tweeting over twenty times in one day. But I digress, the point I was trying to make was that Twitter was familiar territory to me so this project was easy.

            The parameters of the project included making ten tweets on any topic, with at least five of those tweets having a link to an outside website. Then we had to choose three official twitter accounts of generally varying topics and send each of those five tweets a piece. Following this we had to reply to everybody in the class twice. This led to a total of 55 tweets. It was a simple enough task, it was just tedious and monotonous.

            Again, as with the Facebook project before it, there were some issues, but these issues were much more miniscule and a lot easier to correct. The main issue I came across was the fact that 90 percent of the class made their accounts private so as to not draw outside attention; so for those who employed this method they had to approve every follower request. The problem with that was that not everybody approved the requests in a timely manner. It was the night before the project was due and I found myself direct messaging classmates to allow me to follow them. Between the couple that I did message neither replied nor didn’t approve me until class the following day. After which, by the way, the project was already due. So this was slightly disconcerting but eventually I reached my targeted tweet number and fulfilled each of the project guidelines.

            Straying away from the technical side of things slightly, this project made me realize how powerful a tool Twitter can be in the communications world. It allows clients and the public at large to respond directly to you, (unless you’re set to private, obviously) it is also an effective way to give quick, concise updates on what exactly is going on within your life, or your company’s daily updates. Twitter is a lot more applicable than Facebook, simply for the fact that it is much easier to grasp conceptually. The 140 character limit is a drawback of course, but it’s also beneficial because it makes the message you’re trying to get across extremely clear. Pretty much most companies have Twitter presences, and I would imagine that is because of how easy it is to use.

            A great thing about Twitter that I also touched upon in my previous Facebook blog post is that Twitter rarely suspends or deletes accounts unless the tweeter is really in hot water. If the profanity towards others is bad enough that an account gets reported to Twitter, that account will be suspended and will only be allowed to be reactivated if the person or people running the account email twitter directly and explain why they should be given their account back. Facebook on the other hand will delete with over activity. Twitter encourages over activity and the mass following of people. Twitter is more likely to be used by a business or company because it DOES encourage connecting with others in a grand scale.

            With the slow, agonizing death of Facebook, Twitter will more than likely rule supreme over the social media kingdom. Especially in a business setting. This project solidified that this is going to be the social media account that I emphasize for a client if they allow it. This and the website which we will be making in class this upcoming week are leagues more important and good to know.

            Knowing how to professionally present myself within the Twitter setting will be very beneficial to me later down the line. This project showed me how hashtags, mentions, and replies can be conducted in a professional way and in a way that shows extreme internet etiquette. This know how will separate me from the competition that will eventually cloud my way.

 This entire class is showing me just how important an internet presence is for any company, and how equally the people who create and manage these presences are. Perhaps, even more-so. This is the way of the future and the way the industry is going very, very quickly. There isn’t a website out there that isn’t overloaded with links to other websites, most of which are social media sites. The maintaining of each of these sites is a job in of itself and one that is growing more and more of interest to me personally.

I’m currently looking into jobs in the Crisis Management and Crisis Relations fields and what better way to reach people than with a social media approach? This is what people will see, this is what people will understand, and this is communication in one its newest and rawest forms. Helping a client keep their reputation after a crisis would be unbelievably difficult without the use of social media. That isn’t to say it would be easy, because it certainly wouldn’t be, but a social media approach can help alleviate some of the burden.

Every project we have done, especially the recent Facebook and this Twitter projects have led to the website project which is the final project. Every project is equally important to some degree and applicable in some way, shape or form to the public relations and communications world. I do believe with more and more of these projects under my belt, my skill set is ever growing and will continue to support me well into the future. The Twitter project was one of the more beneficial ones.