It's Open - Social Media Strategy Consultancy

During its live online video coverage of the Iraq Inquiry the BBC has been incorporating real-time Twitter feeds on its web site of the conversations people are having on the proceedings.

This is yet another example of how news and information is being democratised.

During the cross examining of Tony Blair, it was interesting to see that Iain Dale, the well-known political blogger, was joining in the Twitter conversation and commenting on how it was going.

Dale is clearly a forward thinking political commentator but his use of social media tools shows how you can influence and participate effectively in democratic online conversations about matters of importance.

Bing, Microsoft’s search service, and Google have struck deals with Twitter that allow both companies to include tweets from Twiter’s database in their search results. This means that increasingly news and information will be influenced by people around the world who are using Twitter and less by professionally-paid elites of editors and producers.

The implications for organisations is that they need to connect with Twitter but more than simply broadcasting out messages. They need to be monitoring Twitter and joining in, having conversations and in this way they can gain influence over what is happening.

Briefings to journalists over the phone or privately will have no impact on streams of tweets so methods of organisational communications have to change if organisations are to successfully reach their customers in new ways and those that influence their customers.

Some other posts you'll find interesting:

1. Cameron’s Twitter edicts
2. Twitter – the only communication tool your organisation needs?
3. ItsOpen Twitter Services

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 10:42 am and is filed under Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.