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Twitter and GovernmentCommunications
White Paper
by Gerald Baron, PIER Founder and Director of PIERStrategic Services
800.395.8081
•
info@PIERsystems.com
•
www.PIERsystems.com
•
1204 Railroad Ave. Suite 200 Bellingham, Washington 98225
PIER Systems, Inc. White Paper - Twitter and Government Communications (Version Date: Sep 01, 2009)
Twitter and Government Communications
A PIER Systems, Inc. White Paper
2
by Gerald Baron, PIER Founder and Director of PIER Strategic Services
Twitter is one of many social media Web applications to emerge on the Internet duringthe past few years. Twitter’s Internet success story was realized in February 2009,after the service’s popularity grew at a staggering 1,382 percent over the previousyear (according to data from Nielsen Online) and
Twitter.com
registered more than 7million unique visitors in the U.S. in one month. Today, Twitter boasts over 25 millionusers and has evolved into a mainstream communication tool utilized daily to sendand receive instant news and updates. Within government organizations, Twitter hasbecome an important part of communicating with both citizens and the media. Thiswhite paper will explore why Twitter is important to government communicators,while providing an overview of the current uses of Twitter, the successes governmentcommunicators have experienced and the downsides they report, concluding withsome thoughts about Twitter and the future of government communications.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is intended to give people a fast and easy way to distribute, share and receivecontent across the Web. Essentially, Twitter is a social networking and micro-bloggingapplication designed to send and receive messages (called tweets) to one another in
140 characters or less—in order to t within the text-message limits of cell phone
carriers. Users can send updates to Twitter using a variety of means including logging-in directly to Twitter’s Web site, using smartphone applications, sending SMS textmessages and emails, or via popular third party applications such as TweetDeck andSeesmic Desktop. Content sent to Twitter is published to the user’s Twitter Webpage, which has its own unique Web address (i.e.
twitter.com/whitehouse
).There are many ways for people to receive updates. They can access updates by visitinga user’s Twitter Web page, or if they are a registered Twitter user they can becomea “follower” and receive updates when they login to
Twitter.com
or use third partyapplications. Additionally, people can subscribe to RSS feeds of tweets that are delivereddirectly to their RSS reader, email or embedded into other Web sites. Content postedto Twitter is searchable and visitors can quickly see who is talking about a subject bydoing a search either through
Twitter.com
or by using third party search sites such as
Twitscoop.com
,
Tweetmeme.com
, or
Tweetbeep.com
.
Within government organizations, Twitter hasbecome an important part of communicating with bothcitizens and the media.
800.395.8081
•
info@PIERsystems.com
•
www.PIERsystems.com
•
1204 Railroad Ave. Suite 200 Bellingham, Washington 98225
PIER Systems, Inc. White Paper - Twitter and Government Communications (Version Date: Sep 01, 2009)
Twitter and Government Communications
A PIER Systems, Inc. White Paper
3
Twitter was designed as a social media channel to enable friends and associates tostay in close contact with one another. The site’s motto is:
“Share and discover what’shappening right now, anywhere in the world”
. Most Twitter use focuses on groups of friends and associates keeping up on each other’s activities such as shopping, grabbinga cup of coffee, listening to a hot new music group, or enjoying a ball game. Given thatthis is the intention, and by far the most dominant use of Twitter, the question naturallyarises: why is Twitter so important for government communicators and causing such astir with those concerned about communicating vital public information?
Twitter in Emergency Communications
Twitter came to the awareness of many government communicators following its useduring a major news event. On January 15, 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 successfullyditched into the Hudson River after taking-off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Aspassengers evacuated into lifeboats, Janis Krums, who was standing near the HudsonRiver, snapped a picture of the plane with his iPhone. Being a Twitter user, Krumsuploaded the photo using a Web application called TwitPic. Immediately, all of his
followers were notied of the incident. From there, the photo and related tweet quickly
made their way to the mainstream media. While Krums assisted rescue efforts, he wascontacted by MSNBC. Thirty-four minutes after the crash, Krums was interviewed bythe cable channel with his TwitPic photo displayed under the breaking news banneron the TV screen. What followed was the typical media maelstrom, but the focus wasnow Janis Krums and his photo. Krums did two phone interviews with MSNBC, onewith CNN, was on Good Morning America, 20/20, Inside Edition, the New York ABC
afliate, BBC, and live with Rick Sanchez on CNN.
Two days after this whirlwind, here is what Mr. Krums wrote on his blog:
“I think it is incredible that anyone at any point can have such an impact by simply posting a picture online. Anyone with a camera phone can report breaking news. I don’t think that Twittering, Flickering, etc., will replace traditional news coverage. But, it can be a great aid for the traditional media channels.”
“Anyone with a cameraphone can report breaking news. I don’t think that Twittering, Flickering, etc.,will replace traditionalnews coverage. But, it canbe a great aid for thetraditional media channels.”- Janis Krums
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