I once walked into a McDonald’s yelling, "I want to see a manager and I want to see a manager NOW!" Granted, they probably had the right to get the police involved but in seconds I was in front of the 30 or more other grumbling customers shuffling their feet while waiting to get to the registers. I had the power of voice. I was not afraid to speak loudly and clearly.
I explained, courteously, loudly, and with a tone of agitation to the manager and every person in the restaurant that I was working at a software company nearby, on a tight deadline, and had sat in their drive-thru for nearly 30 minutes to receive a small order of french fries and a cheese burger. Upon returning to my office, I found the fries to be terribly cold and the cheese burger was nothing more than two buns with cheese and a pickle. How is a cheese burger a burger without the meat?! Before I finished, people started lining up behind me saying, "Mine is missing the meat also." "Me too!" etc.
Everyone heard my message and by the time I left, each person in line received their food with the cashier opening the paper on the burger to prove that there was meat between the bun. Not only did I have a voice that got heard but I had an immediate impact on the lives of other people.
Twitter gives us that same voice on the Internet. Twitter connects disaster victims to family and friends. Twitter connects businesses to clients for sales and support. Twitter keeps us out of traffic jams. And Twitter helps free people from jail!
James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone. [Source, CNN, Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail]
Has Twitter made a difference in your life yet?
