Wednesday Twitter in the News: Paula, Military, NFL, and Tweeting from the Dead

Twitter's not just a social marketing tool - and just plain fun - but it's appearing more and more in the news. I'm committing to posting Wednesdays about what has been going on in the past week.

Paula Abdul's Official Tweet
Item! If you haven't heard already, Paula Abdul will officially not be joining the monarchy of American Idol this time around. And how did we hear such news? A tweet, of course! Word is that the producers lowballed her on the offer hoping she would opt to not renew her contract. Boo. Seacrest is voicing a desire NOT to do Idol without Paula and OMG, it's crazy.

With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to #IDOL. I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all..Cont'd...

Before I start sounding like Perez Hilton, the main point when it comes to social media is that a major television reality show running cast change is being made official via Twitter. We really getting much of our information that way these days.


US Military Unsure About Social Media
So this week the Pentagon is reviewing the benefits and dangers of military use of social media sites, including Twitter. According to the article, there is no military-wide ban, though the Marines formalized their ban last week. Of course, this comes only a month after the ARMY placed an official order to stop blocking Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.

Now, before you say "Meh, that government..." I have to say that the confusion, the flowing dichotomy of whether social media presents an opportunity or a threat, is one I've heard in person and online about corporations worldwide. If the company (or government) does not understand social media, they become fearful. And we can't have anything that we fear running around.

But they're concomitantly missing the opportunity piece of it: joining the conversation, owning the conversation, brand management, and overall social communication to build relationships. Lack of education about social media is one of the biggest obstacles I see on a daily basis, and it does not appear to be disappearing anytime soon.


NFL Working on Official Twitter Policy
Everyone's got a twitter account, and that includes NFL stars. Some are tweeting inappropriately, some claim they will tweet during the game, blah, blah.

Owners and coaches are a little worried about this. For the same reason the military is: part fear and misunderstanding and part real-world CYA. Though losing a football game and a life because of a tweet are very, very far removed from one another.

In order to bring down the hammer on stupid, inappropriate, or giveaway tweets, the NFL is seriously working on an official gameday policy. Stay tuned for more on this one - looks like it's going to be interesting battle of management and egos.


Tweets From the Dead
Starting today, John Quincy Adams will be tweeting his trip to Twitter...that took place 200 years ago. You can follow JQA here. As the article says:

Sure, Adams' tweets may seem a bit dull compared with what we're used to seeing on Twitter, but what they lack in emoticons and LOLs, they more than make up for with lots and lots of geographical coordinates.

I think one of the most exciting things about living today and being so involved in social media is to see not just the tools emerge but watch to see how those tools evolve and change and offer us new and interesting venues.

I love this, and it inspires me to start something new.

I'll have at least a rudimentary idea and announcement by Friday.

Stay tuned, comment, and connect (right column) in any way you can. Have a great day!