The Tennessean published an article yesterday about the rise of twitter in all it’s infinite glory. And while it’s not difficult to make the case that Twitter is indeed a glorious use of social technology, the article itself was a regurgitation of a The USA Today report. Instead of writing an original story, they inserted a few quotes from local twitter users who loosely explained what the service was and why they loved it. This tells me nothing for the phenomenon of why I should care about Twitter or even how it applies to the local community other than telling me people like it.
Before you begin rolling your eyes in the back of your head, I think it’s worth mentioning up front that I don’t plan on wasting brain power complaining about how the rise of Twitter actually happened last year or that mainstream media is slow to realize when something is big until its on the decline. Also, I’m already bored with the idea of bashing The Tennessean as a news organization nor would I dare scald the reporter (who knows what kind of hectic schedule they’ve given their reporters).
I am going to talk about missed opportunities to create a really great local story about twitter in the greater Nashville area, because that is something worth talking about.
Dave Delaney is arguably the most technology savvy marketer in Nashville. He’s worked with e-mail marketing service emma, he’s on the forefront of barcamp Nashville, he schedules Geek meet ups. He published an interview with Frank from Comcast (aka @ComcastCares on twitter) the same day the story got picked up by the New York Times. You cannot deny that this guy knows social media.
But more than anything, Dave represents a missed opportunity for an amazing local twitter story.
Tom Cheredar 