Today: The Twitter Revolution Review
CNBC documentary The Twitter Revolution is taking a close look at how Twitter has changed the way the world interacts with friends, family, and Hollywood. Twitter is now the home base for the who’s who in Hollywood. Whereas stars used to have to go through publicists to speak with the public, they can now interact with their fans at a moment’s notice, 140 characters at a time. William Shatner, for example, loves that he can just speak his mind on Twitter, without being censored or advised on what to say. He wants to use Twitter as a platform for having open dialogue with people.
Today Show: Carl Quintanilla The Twitter Revolution
Documentary The Twitter Revolution is going to look into the social media platform’s future. (Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com)
Carl Quintanilla, the reporter behind The Twitter Revolution, came on the show to discuss the documentary and put things in perspective a little bit. Carl saw Twitter’s success as no surprise when people such as Justin Bieber joined Twitter and started interacting with his fans, but for him, the tipping point came when Pope Francis joined Twitter and announced that he would start performing blessings on Twitter. This is good for the social media company, though. They have been trying to move beyond the celebrity world for quite some time.
Today: Twitter As A News Platform
With 1 in 5 American adults currently tweeting, what happens to the ones that aren’t? Well, you can certainly get left behind where breaking news in concerned.
The story of the Boston Bombing, for example, was broken almost entirely through Twitter. The ensuing manhunt that followed was also assisted via Twitter, as well. Twitter is counting on interactions like this to make sure that their platform isn’t just another passing fad like MySpace.
Today Show: Twitter Hate Speech
Even though Twitter can prove to be a very good thing, there is a dark side to Twitter as well, with plenty of people using it as a platform to spread hate instead. With there being no requirement to attach a name or phone number to an account, the cloak of anonymity give people a lot more gumption than they would have in person. Twitter is currently working to try and allow people to report hateful speech through a tweet, instead of having to navigate through the site to report someone. There are about 40 people who track people who are accused to stalking and harassment.
Today: Facebook Vs Twitter Competition
Twitter’s biggest competitor is Facebook, which is five times larger than Twitter. Facebook is looked at as the essential middle ground in social media, something that Twitter just can’t be with its limited characters. They are worldwide, though, with 70 percent of its users being located outside of the US. One of the biggest questions about the company is whether or not they’re going to go public. When it comes down to it, the company’s biggest challenge will be staying relevant.
The Twitter Revolution will be premiering August 7, 2013 at 9 p.m. ET on CNBC.
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