Twitter Celebrates 10 Years

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — It’s the 10th anniversary of Twitter.

Twitter is used by millions and millions of people. Many enjoy the instant information fix it can give you, but what makes it popular can also cause some pain.

Tweeting took on a new meaning in 2006. Now hundreds of millions of people are sending out messages within 140 characters.
Here at WCBI, the social media site has changed the way we get and send out information. Especially during severe weather.

“Real time information obviously is critical because you know radar can only do so well. Without someone looking at something we may not know what a storm or a flood or whatever may be doing,” says WCBI Meteorologist Isaac Williams.

Getting those tweets out can be the only thing keeping someone safe.

“They may be out on the road or not in front of a television set, but they may have some sort of push notification from Twitter on their phone and if they see the WCBI Weather account tweeting you know about tornado warning, especially if it’s their county, they are going to want to take you know preventive measures,” says Williams.

Keeping people safe is why Columbus Police also have a Twitter account.

“Social media has really become now an investigative tool,” says Public Information Officer Joe Dillon.

And it’s working.

“We had 3 persons that was posted as being wanted for questioning from the police department. Those 3 persons were posted. The police department posted their names and their pictures and over the weekend two of those three people were brought in for questioning,” says Dillon.

But like any social media site it’s always important to double check your facts. Once it’s sent out, it’s hard to take it back.

“At first glance we may not have time to fact check it or research it and we might retweet and then we might have to go back earlier and kind of redact it,” says Williams.

So before you hit send make sure you get the right message across, because if Twitter makes it another 10 years so will your Tweet.

As popular as Twitter has become it still does not have as many people plugged into it as Facebook.