You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
04/16/2009“If you think I’ll sit around as the world goes by
You’re thinking like a fool cause it’s a case of do or die
Out there is a fortune waiting to be had
You think I’ll let it go you’re mad
You’ve got another think coming”
The learning curve for Twitter is a fine dividing line between growing pains and outright fraud. On the one hand, the concepts and usage guidelines are being written as you read this. On the other is common sense and integrity of the user. In the on-the-fly-world of Twitter, one misstep can spell disaster.
As it pertains to this idea of proper usage of Twitter, two recent items caught my eye. The first is a national story where some gay and lesbian book titles disappeared from search results on the Amazon site. The second is a blog post by Ryan Ozawa detailing the startling growth in Twitter followers by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman.
In the Amazon saga, authors whose books were suddenly unavailable immediately began a Twitter campaign to voice their outrage over the perceived slight. Almost immediately, a hacker claimed credit for the “glitch” and a new round of tweets began making the rounds. In two days, the rancor grew so loud that Amazon issued a statement saying that they were implementing new measures “to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future”. As for the hacker, it appears that the claims were false and that a hoax had been perpetrated on the Twittersphere.
Meanwhile, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it seems as that Mayor Hanneman’s Twitter followers increase from around 40 to 28,000 in the blink of an eye! Upon closer inspection, it seems that these new followers were gained through placement on a Twitter “suggested user” list. The fallout over this situation has yet to play out but, in my experience, Mr. Ozawa’s keen observations are usually followed (no Twitter pun indented) by legions of less subtle critics.
Both could easily be chalked up to innocent missteps and been dealt with through quick responses. For Amazon, the nearly 3 days of Twitter chatter grew to a cacophony that just couldn’t be ignored. Circumstances forced them to take action and that action was completely dictated by their critics. For the Mayor, the idea that 28,000 tweeters (mostly outside the state of Hawaii) had decided to follow him is being viewed with a jaded eye. Just as important is the fact that since none of these people can vote for him and they don’t have any direct contact with Hawaii residents, who really cares how many followers he has.
The Twitterverse moves fast. If you’re not careful, it will run you over and leave you for dead. In both of these examples, I think it’s clear that decisions were based on reactive rather than proactive thinking. So beware! If you don’t plan your course of action in our tech-savvy world and think you’ll skate by just because you’ve adopted new technology, you’ve got another thing coming.
So That's Life? 
The way things have been playing out, I’m wondering if soon Twitter might become the monster we can no longer control. I’m reminded how, not long ago, a false Amber Alert was reported on Twitter and spread like wildfire. Retweeting has become the new urban legend chain letter. Nobody stops to check facts– they assume that since their friends posted it, it must be legit. Twitter is becoming a high school gossip chain, where stories are spread in the blink of an eye. I’m not saying that Twitter doesn’t have its merits, but what happens when the good no longer outweighs the bad?
[AVH – I wholeheartedly concur. Right now, there are now controls on content and we rely heavily on the self-policing of diligent members of the Twitter community. What happens when this grows too large? I hope that modifications are made to allow for easier monitoring but this may reach a tipping point that will doom Twitter.]
twitter is so appropriate a name — remember hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”? a long time ago, i remember reading an article about a chicken farmer who had to create these goggles so that chickens couldn’t see ahead but could look down to see the feed. Reason? if a chicken got accidentally pecked and drew blood, the other chickens would gather around and peck the bleeding chicken to death. for some reason, your blog reminded me of that article.
As always an engaging read… Regardless of the outcome of the social media blitz, I’m here “updating,” “following,” “friending,” and “tweeting.” If I didn’t get your “tweet,” I wouldn’t be here. I appreciate the update.