Twitter can open up a new world

Mar 19 2010 by Viv Kinnaird, The Journal

I LOVE Twitter. I’m not alone. There are apparently 50 million tweets a day. Facebook beats that for active members – a staggering 400 million log on in any given day.

The simplicity and speed of social media lies behind its extraordinary popularity. Many businesses from BT to start-ups now use social networks to answer customer questions. The medium has created a whole new channel to inform people about a company and its approach, values and customer focus.

Social media have revolutionised the way in which we link with friends and colleagues. Email dialogue is slow by comparison. With sites like Twitter, Facebook or Bebo you can ask a question and receive a reply almost instantaneously.

It’s the informality of knowledge exchange and access to experts and peers which is most refreshing. Being able to run ideas by people whose opinions matter most to you is exciting. As one twitterer wrote: “Following smart people on Twitter is like a mental shot of espresso.”

It’s stimulating to generate peer-reviewed feedback from a single tweet. The strict 140 character limitations encourage dialogue and focused thought with no space for waffle.

Twitter may yet prove to be a fleeting internet addiction. Critics cite disadvantages such as intrusion of privacy, particularly with its new tool to share tweeting locations.

Prof Susan Greenfield has written that social networking could result in an inability to empathise with others. Social media can be distractions to work or learning.

Yet social networking is changing the way in which we communicate. Free, worldwide exchange of ideas and information is as exhilarating as it is effective.

Its power was quickly recognised by the world of politics and has been harnessed to influence voters in American and the forthcoming British elections.

In business and in learning brainstorming can create unexpected routes forward. Social networking can spur long-sought solutions to dilemmas.

The immediacy of Twitter or Facebook is as pertinent to the world of education as it is to business. Building relationships and linking with people, socially or in business, is central to professional or personal success.

We all want to communicate and social networking sites encourage us to share information. Our ability to innovate, understand and respond is helped by being part of a like-minded group.

Viv Kinnaird is dean of the faculty of business and law at the University of Sunderland