Twitter Has Some Interesting Possibilities
Real Time Organizational Management with Twitter
Apr 17, 2009
Twitter is a new platform. It is not a form of mass adoration or nihilistic chit chat. How it is used today has little to do with how they technology may be used in the future. What it provides is a decentralized form of instant communication that breaks down the limiting structure of company enterprise systems, geography, and the various forms of mass media.
Equipped with only a cell phone an individual or group of individuals can coordinate large masses of people without incurring the cost or loss of time usually associated with such movement. The political and business possibilities and applications for this type of technology are daunting.
Political Applications for Twitter
The whole world watched in wonder as Barack Obama used the Internet and texting to recruit and coordinate masses of volunteers all over the country. The speed at which the campaign moved was historical and the outreach of the campaign was unprecedented.
Compared to Twitter the applications employed by President Obama’s campaign seemed slow and plodding. Twitter or similar technology can now be used to communicate changes inside the administration almost instantly. Imagine in just a few seconds people in Los Angeles can be the same page as the people in Washington DC when it decides its best to call a fight on a new regulatory bill an “opportunity.”
Of course what is good for the administration is good for those who oppose the administration – if not better. One of the most dynamic aspects of Twitter is that it can be employed to coordinate the movement of people. Using Twitter protest groups can coordinate chants, jeers, and movement. Even global protest with people participating in different cities all over the world can coordinate actions almost instantly.
Emergency Applications for Twitter
New Scientist magazine recognized the opportunity right away for the use of Twitter in emergency situations. In a story titled Emergency 2.0 is coming to a website near you Jason Palmer outlines how Twitter could be used to manage wildfires. Because Twitter can be dynamic at moving people it can be of great use for searching for downed planes, lost children or victims of hurricanes and floods.
Twitter can employed to coordinate the deliver of aid to devastated areas. The ability to manage volunteers along side police, fire, and parks personnel (each of which has a different core communication networks) through cell phones makes managing emergencies more timely and efficient as well as safer for the volunteers.
Business Applications for Twitter
Managing people across a wide area of geography without incurring additional cost for equipment and technology is a real benefit of Twitter. This works for construction sites as well as sales people in the field. Twitter is a great way to micro-advertise to your core customers. Southwest Airlines uses Twitter to notify customers of great deals.
Using Twitter companies have the ability to control public relations worldwide instantaneously when a bit of bad news hits the airwaves. Previously the Internet allowed companies to share data without regard to geography. Twitter now allows for the physical movement of resources and coordination of messaging like never before.
The core concept of Twitter may be currently employed in a number of silly ways, but the technology is anything but silly.
