Twitter Birthday Twelebrations

The social medium, Twitter, celebrates its 5th birthday today.

We, at Reporter Towers, are genuine lovers of Twitter and use it to keep up with stories that are happening here in Edinburgh, often from the very point at which they unfold. Twitter is therefore an important source of stories, but also a way of promoting our articles. Thanks to Google Analytics we know how many people find us as a result of a tweet. (And every time an article is published it pushes an automatic tweet to tell you what’s new.)

So how do others use Twitter and what do they think of it?

Edinburgh oil exploration company, Cairn Energy, is one of the companies in the FTSE 100 which so far has failed to get social media according to The Telegraph which reports that the company, in common with many other large corporations, does not have much engagement on Twitter or Facebook. As a free marketing tool Twitter is so very effective. As we have said, we know that a great proportion of our audience has found us (and thankfully keeps finding us!) through Twitter. So why would these big companies not understand the importance, the cheapness and the results they could obtain by engaging an audience through social media? Surely they employ some young people who could deal with it for them?

During the last UK election there were many instances of Twitter being used during the election campaign, and we are sure it will be no different during the Holyrood elections in May. In fact we found a list of the Twitter addresses for all prospective candidates…..! Here is where you will find Alex Salmond and here you will find David McLetchie and here is Alison Johnstone the Green Party candidate – but so far we have not found Labour’s Iain Gray…..

In recent spells of adverse weather the Twitter feeds from Edinburgh Council, advising about schools closures and the roads update EdinTravel really came into their own, providing completely up to date information for all city residents using the medium.

According to their website the first firm of Scottish solicitors to use Twitter was the Glasgow based firm of  Inksters.

We now have  1,684 followers, all of whom have something important to say, but just a couple of whom had to be silenced when they had (in our view) a little too much to say. We take a fairly strong view on anyone who swears on Twitter or Facebook, and really do not like that much at all. We asked a few of our followers to tell us what they think of Twitter and here is what they said…

http://storify.com/edinreporter/happy-birthday-twitter.js[View the story “Happy Birthday Twitter” on Storify]

Lilly Lyle has sent an impressive 33,088 Tweets – surely there cannot be anyone in Edinburgh who has sent more than her?

Only in January did Scottish courts allow the first tweeting from the court room when Tommy Sheridan was about to be sentenced for perjury. This is a complete departure from the previous rules on what could be done whilst in a court room, although tweeting was not allowed by the court during the recent appearance by Theresa Riggi at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Some social media commentators, such as TechCrunch, say that the uprisings in Tunisia or Egypt have at the very least been facilitated by Twitter. And according to Mashable the trending topics last week were unsurprisingly the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and included ways of donating money. We have all heard about Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry and their likes getting to the stage where they have more followers than the population of Edinburgh and Glasgow put together. Even Sarah Brown has around a million followers, proving that there is life after 10 Downing Street.

So what do you think about Twitter? Is it worth the £10bn that it is alleged to be worth? Or will it go the way of Bebo and some other dot com failures and fall by the wayside? Are you an addict or do you think it genuinely adds to your day? Or would you like to know more about it? There are social media classes where you can learn. These are run by Edinbuzz at libraries in the city.

And finally are there any Edinburgh tweeps that you recommend?