Twitter on the high seas?
I must admit, I am new to Twitter. What is Twitter you may ask?
Wikipedia says -
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and feedalizr. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.
After using Twitter, and downloading TweetDeck I would describe Twitter as a portal into the collective thought of the world. I know that is saying a lot, but the power of the application is incredible and I had no idea before I tried using it. This is why I decided to do a post on it for everyone who has yet to experience Twitter.
The power of twitter really became clear during the Maersk Alabama incident. By simply searching “Maersk Alabama” or “ship” or “maritime” in twitter or TweetDeck, you could almost follow the incident in real time as it unfolded across the news wires. Not only do you see an information flow, but you also see opinions and viewpoints expressed in 140 characters or less. If you read tweets regularly, you essentially get the overall opinion of 5 million plus people.
While Twitter may not quite work out for the mate on watch in the middle of the ocean, on an expensive sat connection monitored by the company, it is a good fit for those shoreside wishing to follow current events, stay in tune with the industry, or communicate rapidly with large groups of people.
Even more useful however is the power of Twitter when it comes to communicating during a crisis such as the Maersk Alabama or major oil spill. Nearly all major news agencies have fully tapped into the power of Twitter to communicate with their audiences. News outlets that tweet, will also follow the tweets of others to receive information, and there in lies the usefulness of Twitter during an emerging situation. Feeding news outlets, media, and other interested parties via Twitter is an extremely efficient way to distribute information to the masses. Twitter can help take the heat off public affairs and media relations staff.
Here is just a few of the familiar maritime names that twitter (including their Twitter name)
Read more
Strategic Social – Secure your twitter claim
gCaptain – Twitter yourself from disasters
