In late May, it was international news that Twitter helped a photographer get out of jail. Yesterday, it was cops and robbers -- literally -- outside the office of my former employer, where the endgame of a bank heist/cop chase played out. Two old coworkers were tweeting the action and posting photos to Brightkite (read from the bottom up as feeds are stacked chronologically, latest entry on top).
I get plenty of odd looks when I mention social media, microblogging and the like amongst many of my friends, digiheads and non-digiheads alike, but I may have convinced a few yesterday about its immediacy and power. Many others can wax much more eloquently than I about where the digisphere is going next -- David Armano and Jeremiah Owyang are two of the more prominent. But yesterday's news incident provided me and others our CNN for a few hours as I was monitoring Twitter and passing links along in near-real time.
People will still use Twitter to post about mowing the lawn and I've been guilty of
such innocuousness as well. But as we learn to filter the noise and home in on the signal -- like we all currently do with the hundreds of email messages we receive daily -- the useful employment of social media application will become similarly commonplace. For advocacy groups: flash mobs when a Supreme Court decision is about to be read (bang!). For retail outlets: daypart-driven promotions (Amazon already offering MP3 deal of the day; thanks @warrenss). For first dates: sending a mapped location of the super-trendy bar your future ex-spouse can't locate. And many more that probably haven't been designed yet. Maybe even I'll think of one. Feel free to follow me; and let me know where I can follow you.
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