Twitter Press Conference on Gaza Violence
Dec 30, 2008 Digital Marketing & Metrics, Microblogging, PR, Politics, Random Thoughts
I have just been following the @IsraelConsulate on Twitter. This reflects a whole new use of Twitter. Amazing discussion! The “press conference” using the #hashtag #AskIsrael allowed Twitterers to ask questions directly to the Israeli Consulate. As could be expected of course there were more questions than Consulate could answer! They will be posting answers within in 24 hours at http://www.israelpolitik.org/.
This, along with the past discussion about the Canadian Coalition, and of course previous discussions about the US election show us that Twitter goes beyond “I am eating cereal” and “Guess what I just wrote on my blog…”. I have talked about how brands can use Twitter for marketing and customer service purposes, and now Twitter shows that it has a role as providing breaking news in a way that even the big networks can’t do. Now the public can ask questions, communicate with politicians, representatives of news-makers, and contribute by “breaking news” themselves. This is fascinating! How will this change how we watch the news? How we get our information? How we EXPECT to be able to manipulate and contribute to the news machine? It could be fascinating to watch if Twitter gets used more for breaking news and emergency notification. Already, many of the news networks are Tweeting…but how else will they be used for further engagement with their followers?
I can imagine that in the future press conferences and interviewers could use Twitter to “crowdsource” questions, news channels could use Twitter for follow-up after a story, or to continue discussions online. Opportunities for polls, testimonials, and personal stories could be pulled from Twitter for news stories. What other uses can you see?
Check out Twitter Search for a full list of tweets from #AskIsrael. Here however are a few tweets I pulled from the discussion!
As @shelisrael mentions the most difficult part of this kind of conference or discussion is filtering those who have honest questions versus those that simply want to make a biased point. Sadly, there were a lot of people who obviously joined Twitter just to harass and push their agenda…you can of course see some of them a mile away as most never even uploaded an avatar (image) and use the default Twitter image (two circles on brown background) – and they follow no one and have zero followers.
I hope that the situation in Gaza and Israel becomes peaceful and is resolved soon. The civilians, the good people in Gaza and in Israel should not have to live like this because of extremists, and terrorists (on both sides!) who destroy the chance for peace.
For More Info:
This blogger pulled together a list of questions from the conference.
And of course tomorrow check out IsraelPolitik for the full list of Q&A
A wonderful site of videos of people in Sderot and Gaza: Life in Spite of Everything
FYI while writing this blog, and while following Twitter Press conference I watched the news. Surprisingly no mention of #AskIsrael Twitter Conference. Why not? Especially since one of the CNN news announcer had his Twitter address on the screen!
Popularity: 23% [?]
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December 30th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
New blog post: Twitter Press Conference on Gaza Violence http://tinyurl.com/9rbh8o
December 30th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
New blog post: Twitter Press Conference on Gaza Violence http://tinyurl.com/9rbh8o
December 30th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
What a great example of how to use twitter effectively – a concept that Motrin could have used, but sadly didn’t.
Visit me @ http://www.momontherun.net
December 30th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Imagine if they had- wow! They would have quite an audience – look at the number of women (many moms) who showed up to #gno tonight. They might have learned a lot, and found a way to bring the pain concept to moms in a way that would not offend and was meaningful to us. They would have connected like no other pain med that is for sure. But yes, sadly…
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:37 am
Yet another fantastic example of a positive use of Twitter, although without moderation these things can turn very scrappy… still interesting stuff
AndyW’s last blog post..All main categories are now fed into their own Twitter page