To tweet or not to tweet

While I can’t say I’ve felt the urge to tweet myself, the current obsession with posting the 140 characters worth of the mental equivalent of belly-button fluff is a sign of the profound changes taking place in the way we communicate, both on an individual and organisational level.   

Twitter - the latest social media trend

The impact of Twitter as a way to report on and co-ordinate the recent protests in Iran is illustrates the siezmic shift taking place in the ways we communicate and receive information.  The communications of the future are going to be immediate, global in reach but personal in content, and created by you and me rather than an institutional media.

So it is no surprise to see forward thinking commercial organisations moving to stay in tune with the Web 2.0 world.  First Direct – which was established at the end of the 80s as the first major bank based on 24 hour telephone access rather than high street branches - recently became the  first  UK bank to embrace social media with the launch of its new social media newsroom. 

It collates content from Flickr and YouTube and provides it to customers in the form of a blog.  The bank claims its decision to expand its online social media agenda is a direct result of the successful launch of the its Twitter account.

But while forward thinking organisations are opening up the opportunities of new media, it seems that other organisaitons still have an immediate knee-jerk reaction against any channels which they can’t control.  This week Plymouth Council banned staff and councillors from using Twitter following reports of one councilor using some choice languange in a tweet about proceedings in a council meeting involving a BNP councillor. It is unclear whether the move was in response to the language used in the tweet, or a reaction to the use of uncontrollable media.  It certainly seems like an over reaction, with one councillor said  it was “like being overheard saying something on the phone and the council banning the use of the telephone.”  

Over reaction or not, it is futile for a council to try and resist the changing media landscape, and short-sighted not to proactively embrace it,  especially at a time when politicians and elected bodies should be doing all they can to re-engage the electorate in their work.