Could cops be able to protect citizens better by using social media networks in their line of work? Well, it certainly seems like that, if the recent trends prevailing in the UK are any indication. As we all know, just a few days ago, London, and many other nearby cities were being torn apart by forces of armed rioters. That was when victims and concerned citizens found that using social media would allow them to get in touch with police quickly when necessary, and chose to use it in order to inform law enforcement officials about any act of hooliganism they survived, or even witnessed.

The result of the decision was that social media networks, particularly Twitter channels of many police stations showed a steep rise in the numbers of followers. In London only, the Twitter channel of the Metropolitan Police Force gained followers at 674% faster rates than usual. In the nearby Debfordshire, the rate was around 540%, which is another unbelievable spike!

Does this indicate that in near future, citizens might just be able to file FIR-s from the safety of their homes? Well, it might be a little too early to predict that, but the concept is nevertheless quite promising, don’t you think?

About 10 years back, did we ever imagine social media would become an integral part of our lives. Definitely not!

But here we are today, excessively dependent on various social networking services, more so on Twitter. This social media platform has changed the way we look at life.

Twitter, which generates more than 200 million tweets each day, helped us bring the world at our threshold. We get up in the morning, start with our daily activities, but never forget to check our status on Twitter in between our work. If, by chance, we go to bed without posting a single tweet, we find it hard to relax and allow sleep to dominate our thoughts. Be it, “Ah, I lost my engagement ring #disgust” to “Yipee, I got the job”, we let others share a piece of our mind through this social media service, and somehow feel extremely happy in doing  so. Then you have business bosses who use Twitter to keep clients and followers updated about newer products and services being launched, trying their best to promote their organization, and it works. End of the day, everyone finds Twitter interesting and useful, something which cannot be ignored at any cost. No doubt, the number of Twitter users is increasing each day.

Today, we have got yet another wonderful infographic to give you an idea how Twitter is used by different people across the world and how big it is. So take off your thinking caps, sit back and enjoy this infographic.

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“Journalism should take social media into account on the long term” -  Richard Sambrook, Director, BBC Global News Division.

Social media has reshaped journalism. Today, journalists are able to connect with people on a more personal level through social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. As interaction with their audience increases, journalists get immediate feedback. They are also able to get the truth out there far more quickly than before.
Journalists and news organizations are now able to publish news updates at any time of the day. Sharing real-time photographs and videos has also become more convenient thanks to dedicated websites like Flickr and YouTube. Even the more general social networking platforms have powerful photo and video-sharing options.

There was a time when a journalist’s job was simply to collect and dispense information. Electronic media changed this, and journalism became more about people, their reactions and opinions. With the advent of social media, “citizen journalism” is finally seeing its true potential.

(Cartoon Resource)

Today, an incident can be reported about as and when its happening, and all one needs is a cellphone. So perhaps, the “Investigative Tweeting” award isn’t as removed from reality as it would seem.

Twitter is where small business owners enjoy the freedom of competing with big business houses. No matter what their yearly revenue is, even a small-time proprietor can effectively market his organization by harnessing the power of this social media platform. However, working smart is the key to success on Twitter. Read on for our top four tips on grabbing attention on Twitter.

Keep posting updates

Being inactive on Twitter is as bad as not being on Twitter. Regularly interact with your followers and on an average, try to post 20-22 tweets a day.

Evenly distribute your tweets

If you post 10 tweets a day, and 9 of them are about yourself, your company, and your products, you might be ignored by the very people you are trying to attract. Resource sharing should be your prime focus, but you must also indulge in casual conversation with your followers on Twitter. Let people feel that you are trying to socialize as opposed to pushing your services and products down their throat.

Create Twitter lists

Twitter lists help you create and maintain a resource for yourself and your followers. Moreover, those who you place on your lists are most likely to feel flattered. In fact so flattered, they might just feel obliged to show their appreciation by making efforts to spread a good word about you.

Allow others to RT your updates

A single tweet is of 140 characters only. But, you must ensure that your followers are able to retweet your updates, adding your name at the end. Thus, you must try to leave at least 15-20 characters at the end of each update. This way, your updates will be retweeted by your followers and automatically enhance your web presence.

The tornado that hit Joplin the City in Missouri a few days back has left the city in ruins, resulting in a death toll of around 116. Many homes were completely devastated by the strong gusts of wind of speeds up to 319 kilometer per hour, including the St. John’s Regional Medical Center. It also destroyed a school building and picked up cars off the streets, tossing those at buildings later on.

Naturally, the restoration process is underway at present, along with hundreds of citizens across the city trying to locate their friends, family, and colleagues among the piles of rubble. There is, however, one tool that has been helping the citizens get the news of the disaster out to the rest of the world, and keep in touch with family and friends living out of state.

It is Facebook.

Within hours, a Facebook page created for bringing the plight of the affected people to the notice of the rest of the world got a ‘like’ count of 3,000. That number has been growing ever since, helping people across the nation get in touch with their friends or family, who have been affected by the tornado. In fact, some people have come to know about this natural calamity only through the social media website. Even now, updates are constantly being posted on the Facebook page from ground zero of the tornado, about the rate of success of the search and rescue operations, and the identities of the people, who are being rescued from their collapsing homes.

Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter can always be used for keeping in touch with the rest of the world during a natural disaster. The tornado of Joplin the City is a glowing example of that. Now let’s hope that these are put to good use even in future cases of natural disasters. Perhaps that would help reduce the feeling of loss among the affected people to some extent!