The Tweeting Of A Revolution--And The Loss Of An Icon

By Ben Korman

Bad news last week for those already tired of the Twitter craze, as protesters of Iran's election results grabbed headlines by tweeting their way through a state-enforced media blackout. Reports even surfaced that the U.S. State Department had requested that Twitter postpone a planned maintenance session so that Iranians could continue to communicate uninterrupted.

With the flexibility of the platform itself becoming a significant topic of public discourse, consumer magazine Twitter accounts continue to enjoy nearly universal follower growth. Per min's June 22 snapshot, only three of the 99 consumer brands on Twitter have lost followers since May 18--don't worry, we won't name them.

"Iran" and "iranelection" were the top two Tweeted topics for most of last week--until TLC's Jon & Kate gave it a light shove, then news of Michael Jackson's passing taking over the dialogue on June 25. Not long after, People was reflecting (What was your favorite Michael Jackson look?), Slate was Tweeting retrospective slideshows and Us Weekly was quelling our concerns (Kids doing fine, with grandmother).

Indeed, Tweeting is all about hyperactivity and timing, so despite the unremitting follower growth, magazine brands continue to ride the learning curve. Fast Company business development manager Colin Doody tells min that the publication's Twitter prowess can, in part, be attributed to judicious posting and using a new StumbleUpon tool that generates optimal posting times to maximize views. In turn, FC's tweets linking back to its series on the most creative people in business, advertising and Web have been re-tweeted over 60 times. With such tools cropping up almost daily, the Twitter revolution stands to be a trending topic for consumer brands to follow themselves.