Attributes of Twitter extend beyond just celebrity follower-ships and are largely untapped by the majority of Tweeple

1. Humor, information, emotion,
and all in 140 characters
Attributes of Twitter extend beyond just celebrity
follower-ships and are largely untapped by the majority
of Tweeple.

2. Twitter has become the world's water
cooler
It's a place where you can hear what millions are saying and feel, unbiased
and in that moment
Adam Ostrow

3. The best form of Distribution
Social networks are a highly effective
way of spreading ideas, information and
content. The reach at Twitter/Facebook
and other SNS portals can be immensely
far and wide and yet be very profile-
centric, thus giving a high degree of
success-probability to the message being
transmitted. Thus SNS is a medium that
can do many things incomparably faster
than a lot of traditional media can.
http://arkarthick.com/2010/07/04/how-twitter-turns-journalism-on-its-head/

4. Things happen first
New first happens on Twitter. Case in
point was the human tragedy at Haiti
which was effectively broadcasted by
Twitter around the world, It did not stop
at that only because benefits cascaded
when two way communication allowed
aid, information and benefits reaching
ground zero. The common denominator
here was Twitter.
http://www.france24.com/en/20100113-twitter-ablaze-with-messages-
support-distress-following-major-quake-haiti-social-networking-
microblogging-site

5. Harnessing the Crowd
Google uses algorithms for its “search” of
information on the web. Social
Networking goes a step beyond and
harnesses the capabilities of crowd, mass
intelligence, power of the masses in
order to find information that is new,
valuable, relevant or entertaining.
http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2010/02/twitter-crowdsourcing-how-
to.html

6. A Formidable Aggregation tool
Forget personalized news feeds, SNS
services allow to information flow in thru
to the user thru different other contacts:
experts, users, geeks, makers,
evangelists, Innovators, scientists and
more. Again its not the search, it’s the
perspective that all the contacts in your
friend lists bring to your mind around a
topic.No news organisation could
possibly aim to match, or beat, the
combined power of all those worker bees
collecting information and disseminating
it.
http://kylelacy.com/the-4-touch-points-of-productivity-in-social-media/

7. Word of Mouth
I may have only a few thousand Twitter
followers, but if my blog gets mentions by
GuyKawasaki or a Mashable, my exposure
increases to a few millions. In marketing
speak, it drives traffic and it drives
engagement. If they like what they read
they'll tell others about it. If they really like
it, it will, as they say, 'go viral'.
http://kylelacy.com/the-4-touch-points-of-productivity-in-social-media/
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/3-ways-to-get-customers-talking-
about-you.html

8. A series of conversations
Two-way communication. People Respond, agree, disagree, denounce, like, dislike,
reference, link, retweet and more. Its not one way transmission, its two way
communication. It's the ability to share and discuss with scores, or hundreds, or
thousands of people in real time. Twitter can be fragmented. It can be the opposite
of fragmentation. It's a parallel universe of common conversations.
http://circuitbomb.com/index.php/2009/10/awesome-twitter-conversation-graphs-whos-part-of-the-conversation/

9. Conversation as against Reporting
Talk, Listen, Engage, Entertain,
Humour, Comment. Twitter isn’t about
the elevated platform of transmitting
only. News and views are sought @
Twitter. And the community
contributes genuinely.
http://gigaom.com/2010/08/23/news-flash-social-networks-are-about-
connecting-people/

10. Levels the playing field
There are no big names and small names.
A recognized "name" may initially attract
followers in reasonable numbers. But if
they have nothing interesting to say they
will talk into an empty room. The energy
in Twitter gathers around people who
can say things crisply and entertainingly,
even though they may be
"unknown." They may speak to a small
audience, but if they say interesting
things they may well be republished
numerous times and the exponential
pace of those re-transmissions can, in
time, dwarf the audience of the so-called
big names. Sometimes, people formerly
known as readers can write snappier
headlines and copy than journalists and
writers can.http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-633.html

11. Different News Values
People quite often have an entirely
different sense of what is and what isn't
news. What seems obvious to journalists
in terms of the choices is quite often
markedly different from how others see
it – both in terms of the things to cover
and ignore. The power of tens of
thousands of people articulating those
different choices can wash back into
newsrooms and affect what editors
choose to cover.
http://www.breakingtweets.com/

12. Long versus Short attention spans
Twitter is simply a, instant, highly
condensed stream of consciousness… is
it?
Tweetdecks that follow a particular
keyword or issue or subject put the
attention span of Twitterers puts
newspapers to shame. They are able to
ferret out and aggregate information on
the issues that concern them long after
the caravan of professional journalists
has moved on.
http://personalweb.about.com/b/2009/02/26/are-facebook-and-twitter-
shortening-your-attention-span.htm

13. Community Creator
Communities form themselves around
particular issues, people, events,
artifacts, cultures, ideas, subjects or
geographies. They may be temporary
communities, or long-terms ones, strong
ones or weak ones: they are recognizably
communities
http://mashable.com/2008/11/10/twitter-community/

14. P2P Authority
Instead of waiting to receive the 'expert'
opinions of others – Twitter shifts the
balance to P2P transmission and
response. Thus advertisers are wary of
recommendations, likes and dislikes. Its
not what the marketers say, but what
other users experience around a product
that is increasingly beginning to shape
purchase decisions.
http://www.p2p-blog.com/
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/
http://p2p.weblogsinc.com/

15. Agent of Change
As the ability of people to combine
around issues and to articulate them
grows, so it will have increasing effect on
people in authority. Companies are
already learning to respect, even fear, the
power of collaborative media.
Increasingly, social media will challenge
conventional politics and, for instance,
the laws relating to expression and
speech.
http://blogs.sitepoint.com/2008/10/21/twitter-as-a-tool-for-social-change/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_use_social_media_for_soc
ial_change.php
www.twitip.com/3-ways-to-create-social-change-using-twitter/