Getting the word out

September 20th, 2009

So we’ve already seen how Twitter can be a great tool for crowdsourcing (if you haven’t experienced it yourself, check out my post: A waste of time? What waste?). And yet again Twitter has proven why it is brilliant – the community’s ability to get the word out.

Three days ago the Chicago Breaking News Center blog wrote about 4 dogs that need a home after their owners were killed in a motorcycle crash. The story definitely tugs at the heartstrings, which I think is part of the reason why so many folks wanted to help out and spread the word about them.

As of right now, thanks to about 25 retweets, more than 500 folks clicked on the link.

While it doesn’t look like the dogs have been adopted yet (as their photo and information are still on the Chicago Canine Club’s Web site), this experience is a great example of the power of word of mouth. Thanks to Twitter the story’s reach didn’t end with the BNC’s readers, but was shared with an additional 500 folks who may not have otherwise seen the story.

And the best part is that the reach doesn’t end with this one Tweet. According to search.twitter.com there are a handful of other folks who also Tweeted about the dogs. That’s phenomenal.

Now of course this isn’t a guarantee that those dogs will be adopted soon by someone on Twitter. But it certainly doesn’t hurt their odds.

Here’s to hoping that our Tweets will help change those dogs’ lives in a major way.

Entry Filed under: Twitter

brad z

Cool -- I find myself in more debates than I'd care to count defending the usefulness of twitter. While personally it's evolved into more of a place to rant and vent for myself, it encompasses such a broad range of uses that calling it "useless" is a weak argument, "pointless" is more arguable though I don't believe that to be true either.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, and web developer, it's been interesting for me to watch traditional media embrace (or not) trends such as twitter, especially the Tribune since its what I grew up on.

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Welcome!

Hi, thanks for stopping by.

The past year has brought about many changes -- one, I'm no longer at the Chicago Tribune. After a great two years there, I've moved on to Creative Director at Consumer Media Network. I'm also no longer "acmaurer" technically, since I married my best friend in June '11. I'm now Amanda Woodhead, but between you, me and the Internet, I'll always be acmaurer. So thanks again for stopping by, and here's to some great conversations.

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