Over the past few years, social media including Facebook and Twitter have become wildly popular. As of early July 2010, Facebook has over 500 million active users and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. Facebook is primarily used as a way to maintain your relationships with your friends and family, but the full capabilities of Twitter are still being understood.
On October 5th, Twitter's expanding reach became evident in the sports world. At 5:53 p.m., ESPN personality Bill Simmons tweeted two simple words: "moss Vikings." The tweet seemed out of place because of Simmon's typical humorous nature on Twitter.
"It really didn't make any sense to me. Normally, when I see a Tweet from Bill Simmons, it is something very funny or it is serious news in the world of sports. The two word tweet just didn't make any sense to me," said active Tweeter Jordan Willimann.
It turns out that the tweet was an accident and was actually meant to be a direct message to ESPN Insider Adam Schefter. For those of you foreign to Twitter, a direct message is a message you can write to one specific person that only that singular person can see. On the other hand a Tweet is something for all of your followers and essentially the whole world to see. Quite the difference.
On the set of an ESPN show called "E:60", Simmons was unable to realize his mistake until 6:18 p.m. when he tweeted, "Sorry, that last tweet was supposed to be a DM. Rumors swirling about a Pats-Minny trade for Randy Moss."
By this time, it was much too late. Less than 40 minutes after the original tweet of "moss Vikings", Pro Football Talk, an online football website, published an article "Unintended tweet sparks rumors of Moss-to-Minny move". By the end of the night, multiple sources confirmed that the Patriots were interested in trading Randy Moss and a few hours later he was actually traded to the Vikings.
The development of this story shows the unbelievable capability of Twitter. In two hours, a single two word tweet that came out of nowhere turned into the most important NFL trade in the last five years. For someone following the story from its beginnings as a tweet, it is amazing to see the unbelievable path the tweet took all the way to actually occurring.
It is difficult to truly understand the full capabilities of Twitter. Twitter can be the forum used to inform the world of breaking news. Twitter can be the place to find breaking news immediately and where news can develop. With thousands of users all updating their news feed by the minute, each user can find the most up-to-date information, all while staying in their own home.
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