Twitter: the microphone for everyone

From the premier of a country to the layman witnessing an event down the street, everyone has got a voice and the leading way to raise it today is through twitter. Whether you are a celebrity managing a PR disaster or a brand raising product awareness, the best way to do it is by being precise, direct and without filters. This is where twitter comes in play. A 140 word short message that you can send out to the world irrespective of who you are, where you live (almost) and what you want to say (risks exist!). All in all, twitter provides everyone with a microphone to express ones views loud and clear.

One of the main advantages of this form of direct communication is that there is almost nothing lost in translation. The message reaches the audience as you want to send it. The chances of you being quoted out of context are less than ever before and the fact that it is on the web, the golden rule of “web never forgets” applies to your tweets to a large extent. Twitter has been more effective than other sources of information sharing like blogs, podcast and youtube. Reason being twitter is effortless. You can speak your head out and you don’t have to be a writer or photographer to do that.

Indian Premium League, one of the most lucrative sports league in the world, unleashed the power of twitter in one of the best possible examples of how dominating this medium can be. All through the tournament and scandals surrounding it, the role of major Indian newspaper and news channels was limited to quoting the role players from their twitter feeds. No major news conference, no people running with cameras and microphones, but as much, if not more, buzz and fan following, all through twitter.

The word of mouth social campaigns like Malaria No More and relief efforts in Haiti reached new heights with the help of twitter.

Twitter does a great job in leveling the playing field. You no longer have to wait to be reached out to or asked for an opinion. There’s the microphone for you and you got to leverage it to reach out to your “followers”.