Happy Birthday Twitter
This week Twitter turns 7 and with over 400 million tweets sent everyday all those who doubted that it would be possible to say anything in just 140 characters have been well and truly silenced. In fact being able to get a message across in just 140 characters should be celebrated as an art form. So let’s celebrate the concise, the to-the-point and spot on culture developed by Twitter.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, chose this week – the week of the Budget – to join Twitter, opening himself up to another channel of direct public response. Following the announcement of the government’s financial plans for the upcoming year, comedian David Schneider tweeted ".@George_Osborne to cut tweets to 135 characters by 2015 except for people with +200K followers. We don’t want to drive them abroad #budget" – a tweet that has been retweeted more than 5,000 times so far. Osborne later set down the gauntlet to shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, challenging him to a Twitter popularity contest to see who can amass the most followers.
The @queen_uk humorous twitter feed* has been providing its very own commentary on the week’s news once again. Love it or hate it, we defy you not to gasp at her take on the new Pope, Prince Harry and his wild nights in Cyprus and William Hague. See the full story unfold here *The gin-o-clock loving queen is of course not the ‘real’ Mrs Windsor…
Once again, YouTube has proved itself to be the platform for uncovering talent as this rather unassuming chap shows himself to be a superstar opera singer. Little is known about Maxwell Thorpe, but he is already being likened to Susan Boyle and Paul Potts. He told his local newspaper that he has had no professional training and just "wants to sing". With 3500 views and counting, this fabulous few minutes of opera singing could just propel Maxwell from the streets of Rotherham to singing stardom. Ah – the power of social media never fails to amaze.
This week the world of travel has hit the headlines with a boost from Google. As part of its move into international markets Google has rolled out Flight Search to the UK and other European countries. Previously only available in the US, users can now find flights, compare prices and book travel to destinations around the globe using the easy to navigate map and search tool. It seems there’s no end to what the Google Empire can do.
This week the number of Twitter users will have grown again, thanks to The Daily Telegraph’s group executive director, who demanded that all reporters must be on the social networking site. The order has been thrust upon journalists following the paper’s recent plan’s to focus on digital media. Sources have said that reporters will be required to Tweet once every hour while editors have the unlucky task of Tweeting every 15 minutes…
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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