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Death of Bin Laden Spreads Rapidly through Social Media
With the news last night of Osama Bin Laden being killed, I’m not sure anything PR or marketing related today is appropriate.
I made the joke late that I was sure the President was so threatened by Spin Sucks Pro that he had to upstage us. Or maybe he was really wanting the attention back on the United States after the Royal Wedding.
Kind of funny? OK. Probably not.
What is interesting, though, and totally not a joke, is how the news unfolded as we watched this historical event.
First, the traditional media began to announce there were reports that Bin Laden was dead and they were waiting for Obama to make the announcement. The New York Times online, in addition to listening to George Stephanopoulos on ABC in the background, was the first place we looked.
But, as you know, it’s impossible to get any news from the Times without paying for it. Then Mr. D’s phone rang and my text messages lit up. And that’s when we decided to go to the Twitter to see what additional information we could get.
The thing I find most interesting is, two years ago when Twitter was just becoming a household name, national media would scoff at “news” being released on the social network. Before anyone had announced Natasha Richardson had died while skiing, news of her death was on Twitter not hours, but days, before traditional media confirmed it.
Then, as traditional media began to feel the effects, you started to see the ticker at the bottom of news programs and on websites that said, “Such and such being told on Twitter. We’re waiting to confirm it.”
Now CNN is the top news source on Twitter. Just 26 months later.
And now, within mere minutes, people around the world are creating Facebook pages and nearly 300,000 people are rallied in support (this is nine hours after it was created).
And tools, such as Storify, have aggregated the information into one spot for you to quickly scan and review what’s most interesting.
The world, it is a changin’, and it’s happening much more quickly than anything in history.
Not only have we had two historic events in the span of three days, but we’ve watched social media used effectively and efficiently to tell the stories…in a matter of mere seconds.
Are we, perhaps, entering the social media revolution?
Talk about picking your timing! Launching Spin Sucks Pro on the coat tails of the Royal Wedding and then the end of Bin Laden with Twitter so much in the news. I am impressed!
Here is something funny for ya.
I was having dinner with a friend and he got the news from his friend on Facebook. Then, approx 20 minutes later, Associated Press send him an alert informing him of the news. HELL-OH!!!
AP was slower on the draw than some dude on Facebook? WTH?
To me, that marked the death of traditional news forever.
dino_dogan I found out via a ABC text message saying that OBL had been killed a week ago. I immediately went to Twitter and FB. Twitter had more news compared to FB, but I'm only following a few FB news pages.
Whoa. What a day! I'm headed to read through all of your comments now.
ginidietrich did you ask our permission? 8) We took over when you were gone.
HowieSPM ginidietrich Noticed that, been a lot of good discussions... interesting reading.
I read everything through Twitter before Obama even hit the podium to give his speech. Amazing how fast news spreads, eh...
Ricardo Bueno Eh is right!
Great post, Gini. My 23 year old son is a Marine stationed in Japan who could be deployed to Afghanistan any time. He wants to go. He's watched buddies be deployed and wants to be with them. I try to be strong over this, but it isn't easy when I read the story of military personnel who are killed or wounded, so I wuss out at times. I've learned to limit my military reading so I can carry out my normal routine. I am grateful to Obama and all involved for bringing OBL to justice. And I've learned that the military has a strong , professional social media presence so I can stay informed more about my son, as he has a tendency to leave a lot of details out when telling me things. :) Twitter was rocking last night wasn't it?
KarenBice I can imagine, like janbeery , it's very difficult to stay positive when we read about so many tragedies with our troops. Much love to you and your son!
KarenBice Karen, God Bless your son. I know how that is with our troops eager to go with their buddies. You're right about needing to focus on the day to day activities of life. This is their job and what they have chosen to do. It's honorable and dangerous so we support them, cover them in prayer and wait for their return.
If you ever need support, now you know how to find a fellow military mom, feel free to reach out to me. Been in this game a long time. My oldest is taking on a new role that is highly dangerous with our government. Deep sigh! Special forces guys tend to stay on that track.
janbeery Thanks Jan! Yes, it's hard being in this role. I wish there was a stronger social media presence for military parents. There's a Marine Parents page on FB, but it's not current. The one time I commented on it, there was no response. I've connected to another military mom via Twitter which has helped. Her son is a Army Iraq vet. When I start wussing out, I contact her. :) If you're on Twitter, look me up at karenbice . My best wishes to you and your family. Semper Fi.
A Big day for the US! 10 years ago our oldest son joined the military after 911 and further became an Army Ranger, all to help capture this man and help protect us all. Now onward with yet another gov't agency to continue protecting all of us from terrorism.
Our youngest joined the military 8 years ago for the same reasons and we've almost lost him to terrorist activity on more occasions then I care to count. He's now redeploying in another week. To say this is a day I am proud to be an American is an understatement. Proud to be a military Mom, indescribable!
Social Media is how our troops from Fort Hood first found out about the terrorist who murdered troops on Post while they were in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The first place I went to find out what was going on in the news was social media. Then turned on FOX (Heraldo was a turn off! deep sigh)
People have a voice and it's being heard immediately. I saw a post of ecstatic New Yorker's heading for ground zero. Tweets from the white house, the military, CNN, FOX, etc. It's a beautiful thing that won't go away, will continue to evolve and grow.
For today, I choose to boast about my pride to be an American and happy to shout it across the social media platform!
janbeery I triple like this comment!!! I applaud you and your family for the sacrifices you make for us all on a regular basis.
EricaAllison Thank you Erica. I appreciate your support. Our armed forces and families are great men and women.
janbeery I too applaud the boys, and your family for the sacrifices you're making. Especially knowing about a missed wedding.
ginidietrich thanks Gini. Our troops morale is way up after our Seals accomplomplished their mission last night. We r still praying that SGT Fassl will be able to return and sing his sister down the aisle in August! Always have to think positive.
janbeery Jan, my niece just forwarded an email from her fiance who is stationed in Afghanistan. He said the spirits of his men were jubilant over the news from Pakistan, and they were seasoning two goats for a goat-roast and celebration they had planned for tonight. I love this young man as if he was already in our family. I can't imagine my heart carrying the concerns...and pride...that yours must for my two sons. Blessings to you and your sons who serve us.
MimiMeredith thanks Mimi. God Bless your daughter's Fiance. When is he returning?
janbeery March 2012. They'll be married in June 2012!
MimiMeredith That's awesome. Welcome to the world of military families!
Actually we had 3 major events. Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon had their twins on Saturday. In all seriousness, I am a late arriver to the Twitter party (just started in September of last year) and now know a lot more than my friends and co-workers just by listening. Its amazing where we turn to get the truth and I think its interesting that your instinct was to go to Twitter to get the real scoop.
C_Pappas HAHAHAHAH! LOL!
Great text, Gini! Social media is changing not only the mainstream media but the world, the way people communicate and interact in general. We witnessed this not only the last 3 days but during the disaster in Japan as well. In Bulgaria, for example, a lot of media outlets contacted different people living in Japan via social media channels and presented their personal stories. Pro-active people with energy and wide range of interests show great potential in social media usage and hence provoke big changes. It's getting more and more interesting to see what's the next stage of the social media revolution.
Petya Great point about Japan. And in Alabama here this past week. It's definitely shaping the conversation. For good or for bad.
ginidietrich I suppose it's the same in Alabama, as you say. Citizen journalism is evolving.
Excellent post...I was on my iPad last night and had FB open while TV was providing background noise...suddenly there was a lot of activity on FB status updates, first about an upcoming press conference by President Obama that referenced national security and then, within minutes, the status updates changed quickly to Osama is dead. I had ABC on the TV at the time and, while Facebook and Twitter were actively chirping about Osama's death, nothing had been mentioned on TV initially. I called to Tony (yes, it's true, as compatible as we are, our TV watching habits are completely polar) to tell him I think Osama is dead and he couldn't figure out how I might know that...I told him...social media of course. About five minutes later ABC finally broke into regular programming. I SO agree with you on the power, impact and effectiveness of social media...
ParkRidgeDDS You were up late! :) So you found out about before ABC even broke in?! Wow.
Great post Gini. Last night was amazing for all of us. I also followed on both Twitter and the TV news. It's interesting to see the comments about not waiting for the formal announcement. I wonder how much of that has to do with the lateness of the hour. Here, the news started rolling at 6:30 PM and we waited along with others for the President's speech.
I understand why folks on the East Coast didn't wait for the President as he was an hour plus later than expected and the media definitely filled the time with fluff. But...the President's speech was wonderfully poignant and I hope everyone has listened in its entirety. Twitter does regularly provide news before traditional media but 140 characters does not tell the entire story and that's especially evident in this case.
mdbarber I agree Twitter doesn't tell the whole story. It's just fascinating, to me, how quickly social media has helped shape the events of our world.
ginidietrich I completely agree. Last night was fascinating. It was also interesting how impatient people were when two years before we would never have been so. However, we probably would have wondered why the media was just blathering. I don't understand why they just didn't go back to regular programming and come on when the president was ready to talk. Oh, what a night!
mdbarber And now I want to sing...oh what night! Late September back in 63.
Awesome stuff Gini! You may also want to take a look at a post I did for the Sysomos blog that looks at actual numbers and how quickly the word about Bin Laden spread through social media at http://blog.sysomos.com/2011/05/02/how-fast-the-news-spreads-through-social-media/
40deuce I will! Thank you!
MimiMerideth, I totally agree -- I was very bothered last night by the automated tweets and blog posts. People shouldn't schedule tweets/posts and then completely disengage from social media during that time because it can make them look ridiculous or incredibly insensitive. They should have been monitoring events enough last night to stop any automation immediately.
That being said, I didn't like the endless speculation on Twitter AND CNN before President Obama spoke. As Lisa Gerber said, CNN was just filling the time with fluff, and there were jokes and speculation and false information flying all over Twitter. I just wanted to hear the president speak. As a journalist who helped cover the 9/11 attacks, I wanted the actual news. Last night brought back many emotions from the tragedies of 9/11, the grief of the families, the troops who have fought (and are still fighting) so bravely and sacrificed for our country.
I didn't trust the "news" that was coming from Twitter unless it was from Anderson Cooper or one of the many breaking news networks that I follow. I wanted confirmed information, not hype.
On Sept. 11, 2001, when I got home from the newsroom at about 2 a.m., it was the first moment of quiet I'd had all day, and the weight of the tragedy finally sunk in. I sat on my couch in the dark and sobbed for the families of those who had just lost loved ones so senselessly and suddenly. Last night, I shed tears again for those same families, for our troops, for our country. I did use Twitter then to communicate and connect with others in my network, and that was helpful.
So in the end, traditional media gave me the news I wanted (the president's address, the scenes outside the White House and Ground Zero) and Twitter gave many of us an outlet for our feelings and sentiments after we had the news. Next time there's big news brewing, I'll probably just keep the TV muted until the event or announcement actually happens, and I won't follow Twitter until we know the facts. That's just my style. I guess I'll always have some newspaper ink running through my veins even though I'm in PR now.
kamkansas This is a very thoughtful response and gives us great insight into you. Thank you.
I watched President Obama speak and so did my kids. Afterwards I had a long talk with my children about who OBL was and why we killed him. It was painful to see the concern in their eyes and listen to them wonder why someone would murder moms and dads.
I checked Twitter, the news and FB on and off all night long and marveled at what came through all of this.
And then I blogged about it all and wondered a little bit about how different the world our kids are growing up in from the one in which we did.
TheJackB That was a GREAT post. I haven't been able to articulate much of what is in my heart as a parent of three, and a citizen of the world. You did so beautifully. Here's the link in the event other folks in Giniland would like to read along http://www.thejackb.com/2011/05/01/and-justice-for-all/
MimiMeredith TheJackB It was a great post, Jack! Thanks, Mimi for sharing the link here. I just RT'd it!
Thank you both. I appreciate it.
EricaAllison MimiMeredith TheJackB Not having children I could just imagine having to explain these things. Unfortunately our Government (and others) do things in the short term like supporting abusive dictators (Like the Shah or the Saudi Royals or Latin American Strongmen) because its not something us Citizens care to think about or because we benefit (cheap oil or stability now) but then long term we are the ones who suffer the pain and consequences (expensive oil, wars, instability, terrorism, etc).
We all deserve the right to live free from fear of war or murders. But being the cynic like I always am don't forget we have had 165,000 murders in the US since 9/11. None of those grieving families got plaques, memorials or a million $$ (unless they had boo-coo insurance) and almost all have been forgotten. Which is something our kids need to know because we have been unable to stop ourselves from killing each other and it needs to stop. Five 9/11's per year and I am ashamed at my country that while we allow this we gaze elsewhere.
HowieSPM EricaAllison MimiMeredith I have thought about this a lot. One of my best friends died at 29 from a brain tumor. Another friend's father was murdered when she was 13 and two years ago three of my friends died.
The three that died were all 40. Two were mothers (two different cancers) and the man had an aneurysm.
I don't try to explain why bad things happen but I do talk about what to do afterwards. The people that I mentioned weren't forgotten but they didn't get national attention. Their families have a loss that will never be rectified but it is different from 9/11 because that is a collective loss.
There are a lot of things that I wish that we did differently. I wish that money didn't motivate people to do good/bad but it does. That is part of why countries don't have friends, they have interests.
I hate knowing that some of the money I pay for gas funds terrorists. It irritates me that few people vote and that few understand basic civics.
I am getting killed trying to pay for private school. I pay through the nose for healthcare for my family etc.
My story isn't all that different from many. But the one thing that I can do is teach my kids to give back. We talk about giving back locally. We talk about how to help here in LA. Doesn't mean that we ignore Alabama, Japan or Haiti...but sometimes that local focus makes an enormous difference.
And we also talk about writing our gov't. The kids have written to our senators. They have written to President Obama.
I got on this while they are young so that they would learn and remember that change doesn't happen overnight and that sometimes you have to push.
Sorry for the long comment- I probably should have written this on my blog. Anyway, if we want to see change we have to make it happen because if no one pushes than nothing happens.
TheJackB HowieSPM EricaAllison this "long" comment. I think these conversations are important ones to have with one another and with our children. A friend once said, "The world gets better and better; and worse and worse." I think through awareness and our pushing, as you call it Jack, we can seek a sense of balance and understanding. Knowing the lyrics to School House Rocks songs is a good beginning!
TheJackB EricaAllison MimiMeredith Jack awesome response. I know the people here aren't the ones I/We need to talk to about this stuff. Because we are all patriotic love our country and love this earth and people.
I used to travel a lot for a sales job and was amazed at the bubbles people live in and I get trying to make it and survive thing. But I was thinking about the 'how young is too young to have this talk' and I realized the essence of 'Do unto others' is never too early because often they can bully or be bullied at scary young ages.
I remember the overweight kid in first grade I was making fun of. He put his gum in my hair. it needed to be cut out. I cried. My folks said 'What did you expect would happen?' LOL
TheJackB EricaAllison MimiMeredith BTW Jack I am telling ginidietrich on you. I thought she had all the spots filled for good smart nice people who don't like spin. lol
HowieSPM TheJackB MimiMeredith I had gum in my hair once and all over my Holly Hobbie flannel night gown, precisely as my mother predicted when I went to bed that night. I also had it cut out of my hair.
You're right, Howie, the do unto others lesson is a good starting point. This came up for us already at the ripe old age of 8. My son had gotten into trouble for playground 'fighting' to the point that when he was bullied on a bus ride home, he didn't do a thing - he was afraid he'd get in trouble. Very confusing for young ones about when it's ok to defend yourself and when it's 'play'.
EricaAllison HowieSPM TheJackB I am a huge believer in "natural consequence" parenting and managing. But really...hair loss does not have to be the predictable out come of gum in your lovely locks, my friends! There are two great products: Goo Gone and, my personal favorite, peanut butter, that get that gum out lickety split! Or so I would tell my daughter as I was painstakingly rubbing it out of her hair. I know...it's a far cry from the weighty issues of parenting and citizenship with which this thread began, but I just couldn't resist offering my oh-so-helpful advice before any other harrowing hair loss stories occur!
MimiMeredith HowieSPM TheJackB Sad thing is, my mom tried the peanut butter and STILL had to cut my hair. Maybe that's why I've always had short hair! LOL
EricaAllison HowieSPM MimiMeredith Ah yes, play fighting. We have had that discussion. Sometimes I worry about our having become a "kinder," "gentler" nation- the lines are so blurry. But I suppose that in many ways they are no blurrier now than when we were kids.
MimiMeredith EricaAllison TheJackB But Mimi in 1974 was Goo Gone on the market?!!! if it was I am going to give my folks some grief! Now peanut butter we did have!
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