Twittering: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
I previously blogged about how Twitter is possibly the fastest growing phenomenon today. According to research, between 5,000 to 10,000 people sign up for a Twitter account every single day. That's way faster than the blogsphere community growth LOL. So what is Twitter again?

Some say Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. Some say Twitter is instant messaging available to the public. Whatever people call it, you're limited to 140 characters.

The growth of Twitter is so huge, just about everyone's jumping into it now. Businesses, brands, marketing, everything and everybody wants to be part of the Twitter community now. And, like any hot trend, there are pros and cons to using this tool.

Many businesses and individuals are hooking up with Twitter for its vast community network. Knowledge sharing has taken another step forward. With Twitter, you gets news in an instant. You can keep track of tweets, sift through them, and share them. Some brands are also leveraging on Twitter to build their brand name. So yes, it cannot be denied that Twitter, is more than just micro-blogging/instant messaging. It's a business tool.

Now, this is my thought on Twitter. I use Twitter on a daily basis. I sync my Twitter account with my Facebook status. Hence, when I update my Twitter status via TwitterFox (a Firefox browser plug-in, beats having to log into Twitter's website), my FB status is updated too. It's convenient for me. Plus people who read my blog can also see my tweets on the top left column. I tweet about anything. Twitter to me, is not so much a business tool. Rather, it's for the convenience to update my FB status more.

I've also realised the bad side of tweeting. Because Twitter is on a public network, anyone on Twitter can read your tweets. Which means that if you tweet something like "I don't like Mr XYZ, he's such an @$$."... Chances are, people will pick it up and spread the word. This is known as a viral. Now virals can be positive or negative, depending on what people tweet about. I'll give you some examples of virals:

The Good
When news broke out that Maxis was bringing the iPhone into the country, there was a buzz in the Twittersphere. People were tweeting all about it etc etc. It created a whole lot of buzz for the launch event, which is good news for Maxis. The more publicity, the better. Another example was the Mumbai attacks and the Hudson River plane crash. People who were present at those moment were actually tweeting about their experience/encounter, hence spreading the news way faster than any other media out there.

The Bad
Tweeting about how doing server maintenance during office hours resulted in a miscommunication between workmates. Even though the server nor company name was neither revealed (the matter was in fact, resolved very much earlier in the morning. It was brought up again later in the day), someone got generally pissed and demanded for an apology. The reasoning was that because such status were published in the public network, hence the public might be able to associate and connect the dots, even if no names were mentioned.

The Ugly
An employee for a firm in New York flew into Memphis for a presentation to Fedex. When he touched down, he tweeted "True confession, but I'm in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, 'I would die if I had to live here!". Now he didn't say the name of the town, nor where he actually was. But someone from Fedex had picked his tweet up, and forwarded it to some big shots. Least to say, the happenings that follow ain't a very pretty picture lah. It's a seemingly innocent private thought. But it did cause some irreversible damage. A group of us did talk about this, and half of us think it's just a general statement coming from one person. Some one could tweet "I hate this town!", and suddenly you might just find a whole group of people jumping onto him/her, all because of one little tweet. The problem here wasn't so much of what this employee tweeted. Rather, it was where he was when he tweeted. He was in Memphis, headquarters of Fedex.

So there you have, just some simple example of how Twitter can make, or break. You know, with such technologies available now, I can't help but feel that it's making society, and people, even more prone to being even more jumpy and sensitive than before. Censorship has to be practised a lot more rigid than previously, because these days, everyone is connected one way or another. I practise censorship too, though my practise may not be as rigid as some (I may fly off the handle once a while, guilty as charged). But yes, I'm making it a point to reshuffle my thoughts before actually posting them.

The other day we had an internal sharing about Twitter, its power as a tool, and its weakness. There was a "Dos & Don'ts" list about tweeting. We're of course, advised to always tweet about positive things, and to stay clear from vulgarities and the likes. Although I didn't agree with some items on the list lah. Like, there's nothing wrong if a person tweets about their meals "I had KFC for lunch, yum" or "GAAAAAAAH!!!" Not everyone uses Twitter as a business tool, and it's not against any rule to tweet about something which has no specific context. Some of us, like me, use it to update my FB status.

Here are some articles for you to read about Twitter:

Link 1 (the Fedex story is stated here)
Link 2

The phrase "ignorance is bliss" holds a lot more truth these days than ever before. You're not allowed to think aloud anymore.