Pew: Social Networking penetration, use in US

The Pew Research Center is reporting that as of May 2013, almost three-quarters (72%) of US adults who access the Internet are using social networking sites.  That survey also asked specifically about Twitter, and found that almost one-fifth (18%) on online adults used Twitter.

The new numbers also show that social networking penetration is increasing across demographic groups.

Younger adults are avid adopters and users, but social networking is also becoming widely used by older adult: 60% of internet users aged 50-64 use it, as do 43% of those 65 or older.  Minorities (Hispanics 80%, Blacks 75%) are heavier adopters than whites &70%). Interestingly, there were no statistically significant differences in terms of gender, education, location, or income.

While the percentage of online US adults who are on Twitter has more than doubled since 2010 to 18%, Twitter penetration is by far the highest among the youngest, with 30% of those 18-29 having Twitter accounts.  Minorities are almost twice as likely to be on Twitter than whites, and there are also statistically significant differences in penetration when looking at education, income, and urbanity.  The table to the right provides the detailed demographic breakdowns.

Source -  72% of Online Adults are Social Networking Site Users, Pew Internet & American Life Project research report.
Full research report as PDF file

Milestone: Vine hits 40 million users

Vine, a service on Twitter that allows users to post and share very short videos (6 seconds), has announced that it had accumulated 40 million registered users.
The Vine app was initially available only for iOS-based devices (Apple), but launched a version for Android OS last June.  At the time of the Android launch, Vine had 13 million users - which means that its gained another 27 million in just the last two months.

“We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again; this community – now more than 40 million of you – is amazing. Thank you for inspiring us,” Vine tweeted.

Source - Twitter's Vine video service reaches 40 million users,  redrocketmedia

Infographic: Decoding Text Teen Prattle

Just what do all those letters mean?  Here's a handy translation guide...


Thanks to TruSpy Blog for the tip and infographic.

Nielsen Study suggests Twitter-TV Link

A newly released study by Nielsen has found evidence of a statistical bidirectional relationship between TV viewing and Tweeting about that program.  According to Nielsen's press release,

analyzing minute-to-minute trends in Nielsen’s live TV ratings and tweets for 221 broadcast primetime program episodes using Nielsen’s SocialGuide, the study found that live TV ratings had a meaningful impact in related tweets among 48 percent of the episodes sampled. The results also showed that the volume of tweets caused significant changes in live TV ratings among 29 percent of the episodes.

The study also found that the impact of Tweets varied across program genres.  The impact was greatest for competitive reality shows (no surprise there), and also found that Twitter impact was greater for comedies than sports programs (a bit of a surprise).  Drama was least affected by concurrent Tweeting.

Source -  The Follow-Back: Understanding the two-way causal influence between Twitter activity and TV Viewership,  Nielsen newswire

AP Twitter Feed Hacked

You've probably heard about this already, but yesterday the AP's Twitter feed was hacked, and used to send out a bulletin that the White House had been bombed and President Obama injured.  Despite AP's quick reaction and suspension of its account, the hacker's message was retweeted thousands of times within the next few minutes to significant effect.  There was panicked selling in stock markets, in one highly visible impact.  Coming on the heels of last weekend's hacking of multiple CBS News Twitter accounts, it's renewed calls for better login security at Twitter.
  The same group is claiming credit for both hacks, although the AP hack message mirrored AP style, while the CBS hack posts were more clearly political.  A later AP story indicated that the intrusion was more the result of a phishing expedition aimed at AP corporate accounts.  Phishing emails often use real graphics and look-alike account names to trick recipients to going to a faked login page and re-enter login names and passwords.  Hackers then use the real account info to gain entry into the service.
  Computer security experts are suggesting that Twitter add what's called two-factor authentication, where there is a second step when logins are attempted from a new device.  In addition, they're suggesting that Twitter add a function that would allow for corrections to be attached to the original tweet - for now the only option for a hacked account is to suspend the account and create a new password, and hope that word of the false tweet gets the same exposure.  While Twitter policy is to not comment on specific accounts or actions, Forbes reports that a scan of recent Twitter job listings suggests they're looking for people with the necessary skills to improve security.

Source -  AP Hack Highlights Two Crucial Features Twitter Needs,  Forbes

CBS Twitter feeds Hacked

CBS has acknowledged that the Twitter feeds for 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, CBS Denver, and its main account were hacked over the weekend.  As a result, the accounts were suspended on Saturday night.

Earlier in the day tweets coming from the 60 Minutes account seemed farfetched, including one that claimed the US government was "hiding the real culprit of the Boston bombing."

Other Tweets contained links to virus-laden sites, and rants about government conspiracies and treatment of Syria.  The Syrian Electronic Army claimed credit; previously they have claimed credit for the hacking of Twitter accounts at the BBC, NPR, Reuters, several radio & TV stations, and the NGO Human Rights Watch.

Sources -  CBS Twitter Feeds Are Compromised,  TVNewsCheck
Syrian Electronic Army claims credit for CBS Twitter accounts hack,  SlashGear.com

Twitter Adds Music

Last week, Twitter announced a new stand-alone music streaming app, called #music.  The iPhone app will recommend and stream songs based on who users follow, as well as artists' recommendations.

 In a blog post, Twitter's engineers said the new service "uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists... It also brings artists' music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists."

The actual songs will come from subscription streamers Rdio and Spotify, as well as Apple's iTunes store.   The service is currently available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.  No release date was provided for a native Android version of the app.

#music comes online four months after the launch of Twitter's video-sharing app, Vine, and is seen as part of Twitter's goal of becoming a multimedia hub for younger users.

Source -  Twitter launches music app to deepen multimedia offering, TheUSDaily

Just How Different Are Mobile Tweeters?

A recent study by Twitter looked at the behavior of people who mostly access and use Twitter through mobile devices, and found that they're quite a different bunch.

Mobile and Twitter would seem to go together, and 60% of users log in on a mobile device at least once a month.  But what about users who primarily use Mobile devices to access Twitter and tweet?
  As you might suspect, primary mobile users are 57% less likely to use desktops for Twitter access than the average Tweeter.  On the other hand, they're 86% more likely to report using Twitter via mobile devices several times a day.  While smartphones remain they dominant means of mobile access, 15% of primary mobile users say they mostly use tablets for access.  Demographically, the study suggests that primary mobile users tend to be younger, but there seems to be no gender differential.
  The biggest differentials are in how primary mobile users make use of Twitter. They're more likely (than the average Twitter user) to use Twitter when they wake up (157%), and when they go to bed (129%).  They're more than three times more likely to use Twitter during daily commutes, 160% more likely to Tweet during work or school, 169% more likely to Tweet while shopping, and 301% more likely to Tweet just before or after watching a movie, and 32% more likely to Tweet while watching TV.
  They're also 62% more likely to communicate with people near them (trading locations or sharing a photo).

  Still, one of the most interesting findings is that primary mobile users are not only more active in accessing Twitter, but in actively using Twitter to share thoughts and content.  They're 57% more likely to create Tweets, 78% more likely to Retweet, and 85% more likely to "Favorite" tweets.  And the good news for advertisers is that they're also 63% more likely to click on links.  The folks at Twitter doing the study talked of primary mobile users being "amplifiers" that drive engagement.

I'm not surprised - mobile is opening new opportunities for communication and information access, and we're seeing changes in how people access and use information.  Mobile is also continuing its growth globally.  According to the ITU, more than half of all mobile subscribers use smartphones and/or tablets as their primary device, and more people access the Internet through mobile devices than through land lines.  There's a strong potential for mobile to be a transformational technology, changing the way people access and use media and media content. Media need to track, understand, and take advantage of those changes to remain successful over the long term.

Source -  New Compete study: Primary mobile users on Twitter, Twitter's Advertising Blog
Edit - Cleaned things up a bit. (2/20/2013)

Twitter and Social TV

  Several recent management moves suggests that Twitter's trying to be the social complement to TV - becoming the playground for fans to comment, providing instant feedback to networks and program producers, and (finally) providing an opportunity to engage audiences and make TV viewing both a lean-back and lean-forward activity.

  The roots of Social TV arguably lie elsewhere in the dim pre-History of the online world.  Certain programs have always had a strong fan base, and the rise of email listserves, Usenet newsgroups, and BBSs (computer bulletin board systems) offered the more tech-savvy of those an outlet for connecting and sharing thoughts and comments with one another.  With the rise of the Web, many of these sites and efforts migrated to fan websites, and some program producers were savvy enough to start their own official fan sites.  Among the range of available sites, fans could find chatrooms for realtime interactions, archives of program info and materials, and opportunities to share their own fan fiction and fan art with others.  And when their favs were threatened with cancellation, a platform to energize and motivate the fan base to offer their support.

  The rise of social media provided an alternative mechanism for fan interaction - and opened the way for less tech-savvy fans to join in.
  Rather than just passively absorbing TV fandom, Twitter seems to have recognized the potential of marrying their system to fan interest and activity.  They also saw an opportunity to monetize that by working with media and program creators to package fan comments and interactions into useful feedback, and providing the program/media side with the opportunity to add value to their content by engaging audiences and fans. Several years ago, Twitter started hiring people to help foster media partnerships (Chloe Sadden as director of media partnerships, Fred Graver as head of TV partnerships (US), and Dan Biddle as head of broadcast partnerships (UK)). 

“Twitter had tremendous foresight in the very early days to start working with TV networks, to get them to care about using Twitter hashtags and the Twitter social platform to engage their fans. We’re seeing the fruits of that labour right now. When TV networks do call-outs, it’s almost always about Twitter. That didn’t happen by accident,” says Tom Thai, marketing director at Bluefin Labs. 

Last month, former News Corp President and COO Peter Chernin joined Twitter's Board of Directors.  A recent feature article on C21Media commented on the move:

What he brings to Twitter is undoubtedly what the tech company so desperately craves – ever closer relations with the worlds of traditional media and advertising...

  The article stresses the addition of Chernin as the latest in a series of mostly organic evolutionary steps.
 It quotes Tony Wang, head of Twitter UK:

“Social TV is becoming the way people engage with programming anyway, regardless of what the broadcaster is doing,” he says, downplaying the significance of Twitter’s very active scheme of promoting industry ‘best practice.’ Twitter has become the “global water cooler."

Wang noted that studies suggest that as much as 80% of young viewers (under 25) are using a second screen while watching TV, and almost three quarters of those are using social media to comment on the programs they're watching.  A recent TV Guide study suggested that 70% of viewers have seen a social comment about some show, and 17% started to watch the program because of those comments.  Also, 31% indicated that social comments encouraged them to continue watching.
  Twitter's Fred Graver calls Twitter the new TV Guide -

“Our goal is to get people closer to what they care about and the easier it is for people to find programming that they like or the easier it is maybe for them to supplement the programme they’re watching on-air, that’s a great thing.”

Whether organic or directed, the important thing here is that Twitter doesn't see their partnership with TV and media merely in terms of increasing Twitter users and traffic.  To mangle an old phrase, there's gold in them thar hills of Tweets.  Wang emphasized the focus on the value of being able to make use of the information in those tweets and links -

“The more interesting value proposition is not so much recreating what viewers have been able to find on Twitter already, it’s aggregating the data and making interesting visualisations out of it, surfacing patterns or peaks and making that data digestible to both broadcasters and mainstream audiences. We’re seeing a lot more third-party specialists in this space and we think that’s an exciting opportunity....
For more than two years now we’ve been telling developers not to reproduce that consumer experience but rather focus the innovation further up the stack – by thinking about taking that data, making it interesting, visualised and consumable by broadcasters, at least in the broadcast space.”

As the article notes

Twitter’s contribution to the conversation around TV – and indeed the entire spectrum of human chatter – cannot be disputed, but the company, despite its fluffy-feathered image, is a commercial beast like any other. At the end of the day, it comes down to money and making profit for the investors that have supported it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Partnership with media outlets and content producers looks to be one way that Twitter's generating recoverable value.  Still, for it to be successful, the media side also needs to see the value and benefits of engaging viewers through Twitter.  I've done a couple of posts on the value of Twitter for news (here, or here) and Social TV more generally (here, here, and here), but here's a nice visual from Seth Ghuniem at WiredSet that outlines how networks and program producers can use Twitter to promote viewing and engagement.

Source  -  Sailing on the Social TV River,  C21Media
Social TV: On-Air / Online Best Practices - Twitter,  WiredSet

Twitter and News and TV

In a recent interview, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo talked a bit about what he saw as Twitter's role in the expanding media marketplace.
  He suggested that the services most important social impact is disintermediation - in providing users with an avenue to information, news, and opinion that is not filtered through the dominant media lens.

(W)ith Twitter, people want to know what everyone else thinks and we're getting this inside-out, multi-perspective view of what's going on right now as it happens from everybody else that's watching the same thing we're watching. So I think the major transition for society has been one of from a single point of view in a filtered way to a multi-perspective, inside-out, unfiltered view of what people think of the event.

Costolo went on to say that he thought that Twitter was more of a complement to existing media than a substitute or replacement for it.  When asked whether he thought people used Twitter more as an echo chamber, Costolo suggested that his hope was that Twitter gave everyone a voice, and gave followers the potential to sample the full spectrum of opinions and perspectives - but it is the followers choice to use Twitter for enlightenment (seeking alternate perspectives) or self-affirmation (seeking support for one's own thoughts).
  As for advertising and revenues, Costolo didn't give figures, but did note that "the origin and future of Twitter is mobile," and the mobile advertising market is robust and growing.  As for the company's future, Costolo noted that

(Looking) down the road for Twitter, we would like to be a company -- a service -- that is used by billions of people around the world in every country in the world because we feel that the power of Twitter is that it brings people closer to each other, to their governments, to their heroes, etc. So that is absolutely our overriding goal for this service. I think the only thing standing in between that goal and where we are today is our own ability to execute against that vision.

  Some commentators took his use of the NBC Olympics coverage as an example of the complementarity nature of Twitter to suggest a focus on developing Twitter as a major force in Social TV (through the "Second Screen"). Dave Morgan's take, as outlined in a post on the Online Spin blog, is that the design of the Twitter service, and current usage patterns tied to big news events, shows that a real-time social Web service can add value to an important live news event being passionately followed by millions of citizen journalists and millions more readers, viewers, reviewers and analysts. "It gives me hope yet for the development of the kind of powerful digital Fourth Estate that many folks thought the Internet could support," Morgan quipped.
  Morgan rightfully cautions that that such use isn't necessarily the best or dominant aspect of Social TV and/or Second-Screen application - just an interesting and potentially useful one for news and journalism to note and try to take advantage of.

And I, like Morgan and Costolo (with less specificity), see "the intersection between media like television and web services will be ... wide and deep and diverse."  "Control" is probably not the best word to describe that relationship.

For more of Costolo's comments, check the interview transcript at the source below.

Source - Twitter CEO Dick Costolo on Jack Dorsey, ad revenue, going public,  Marketplace Tech 
Twitter Clear Early Leader To Control TV's 'Second Screen',  Online Spin

Wearable Tweets? Really

Bloomingdale's and Microsoft are teaming up to bring a "tweet-powered" dress to this year's New York Fashion Week.

The dress is made primarily of paper, and includes a projector under the skirt so that the tweets are "printed" on the material.  There's also a keyboard incorporated on the bodice so the wearer can add her own comments.  (But be careful when hugging.)
  Tweets can be sent to the dress, during Fashion Week, using the hashtag #MSBLOOMINGDALES

  Ain't technology grand!

Source -  Microsoft Teams Up With Bloomingdale's To Unveil 'Tweet-Powered' Dress,  promaxBDA daily brief

Faking Twitter Numbers - and Exposing Them

It's been a dirty little secret for a while - a lot of Twitter followers are "fake."  Offers of generating a thousand "followers" for as little as $5 have been floating around the Net for a while and a number of websites advertise generating Twitter followers for pay.  And some news reports have been quick to question large jumps in followers - often asserting (without evidence) that they must have been bought and paid for.
  I should note that jumps in the numbers of followers can be fairly common for politicians, celebrities, and others in the public's eye.  A big story or new release can focus attention on public figures, putting their names (and twitter accounts) to the attention of thousands or millions of other Twitter users, sparking an interest in starting to "follow" them.  I'd be much more suspicious if the jump in followers occurred before a big event (especially if during that event, the number of Twitter followers are touted) than if it follows something that triggers public attention.
  There are two basic methods for generating "followers" for the "target" Twitter account.  In the first, software looks for existing accounts of people with similar interests.  The software then uses the "target" account to "follow" the generated accounts, hoping that many will reciprocate.  The other approach is to use bots to generate new Twitter accounts just to "follow" sites that pay for them.
  Now, a UK firm, StatusPeople, has developed a means of identifying fake followers.  The measure tracks the accounts of followers back and looks at a number of measures of account activity.  A follower is considered to be fake if there is little activity beyond following. As a company spokesman described it:

 "A fake account is set up to follow people or send out spam. They normally have no followers, but follow large numbers of people. An inactive account is one in which there has been no activity for a while. They could be real people, but we would describe them as consumers of information rather than sharers of information. A good account is everything that remains."

The company tested its process on a number of Twitter accounts for politicians and celebrities - among the highest reported levels of "fakes" were the Twitter accounts of soccer star Cristiano Renaldo (79% of his 12.6 million followers were fakes) Lady Gaga (71% of her 29 million followers were fakes), President Obama (70% of his 18.8 million followers were "fake") and major professional sports leagues (MLB was 75% fake followers, NBA has a 73% fake rate, and NFL had 68% fakes),
  Unfortunately, the measure doesn't indicate what level of followers were bought and paid for, and by whom.  Also, let me note two methodological caveats with the measure - first, the metric differentiates between "fake", "inactive" and "good" accounts before combining "fake" and "inactive" and reporting the total "faked"; second, for the accounts with large numbers of followers, they don't actually test and validate each follower - they examine a sizable number of the most recent followers and extrapolate that to the whole population of that site's followers..

  You can check the "fake level" of Twitter accounts through Fake Follower Check.

Sources - How To Expose Fake Twitter Accounts Of Celebrities, International Business Times
Buying Their Way To Twitter Fame, New York Times
10 Sports Twitter Accounts With a Shocking Number of Fake Followers, Mashable Social Media

edited twice to correct typos

Twitter interference at Olympics

Coverage of the London Olympics starting with a glitch - a GPS tracking service that could let broadcasters know where riders in the bicycling road races were on the course, or the times between riders.  The IOC blamed Twitter users for flooding local telecomm providers with "non-urgent" tweets.

The problem arose due to lack of data bandwidth provided by telecom carriers, which did not properly anticipate demand. In a sense, the bandwidth allocation issue is not surprising given the scale of social media during these Olympics. CNET's Zack Whittaker reports that users send almost ten million tweets during the opening ceremonies alone.

The possibility of overloading local nets was anticipated by organizers and local authorities (see this earlier post) - but it's not clear whether they made much of an effort to address the problem, other than asking people not to use the net during the Games..

Source -  Twitter disrupts GPS systems of Olympic cyclers,  ZDNet.com

Who Gives a Tweet?

A recent academic research paper looked at the content of more than 40,000 tweets and the ratings they were given by users.  Tweets were organized into 8 broad content categories, labeled Questions to Followers, Information Sharing, Self-Promotion, Random Thought, Opinion/Complaint, Me Now, Conversation, and Presence Maintenance.  The primary rating system was whether a tweet was "Worth Reading", "OK", or "Not Worth Reading."  Raters could also indicate which of a set of 4 positive or 4 negative adjectives applied and leave more specific comments.

• Only 36% of rated tweets were considered "Worth Reading".  25% were rated "Not Worth Reading" and the remaining 39% were considered to be "OK".
• Questions to Followers, Information Sharing, and Self Promotion were the content types most likely to receive "Worth Reading" ratings.
• Presence Maintenance (brief, salutary postings), Conversation, and Me Now (the tweeter’s current status) were the content categories most likely to receive "Not Worth Reading" ratings
• Raters almost universally disliked overuse of location check-in tweets from services like Foursquare, inclusion of @mentions in tweets when a direct reply would have worked, and presence of multiple hashtags that obscured content
• "Informative" was the most widely selected positive adjective, although both "Funny" and "Useful" were also frequently selected.  On the negative side, "Boring" seemed to be the reason behind most "Not Worth Reading" ratings (81%)

The researchers concluded that the raters in their study valued Twitter as an information medium -

Tweets worth reading were often informative (48%) or funny (24%), as seen in (the figure above). These tags had very little overlap: a tweet was often one or the other, but not both. Information links were valued for novelty or an appealing description: “interesting perspective on something I know nothing about”, “makes you want to know more.” Humor was a successful way to share random thoughts or opinions especially: “it’s witty and snarky. worth the read.” In keeping with Twitter’s focus on short messages, followers appreciated conciseness: “few words to say much, very clear.” A human aspect was also appreciated: “personal, honest and transparent.”

Sources - Who Gives a Tweet? Evaluating Microblog Content Value, report at Journalist's Resource blog.
Who Gives a Tweet? Evaluating Microblog Content Value, research paper by Paul Andre, Michael S. Bernstein, and Kurt Luther.

Social Media News - Discovering the Value

More and more, traditional media outlets are hoping to take advantage of social media's ability to reach large numbers of people in a more interactive, engaging way.
A recent RTNDA/Hofstra survey of U.S. local TV stations shows social media being embraced by most stations, with the possible exception of "the smallest stations in the smallest markets."  In fact, they report that more than 90% of TV stations participate on Facebook or Twitter, and stations are beginning to see social media as more than a way of reaching audiences or for promotion.  According to the director of the research project.

“There appears to have been a shift in the last year from using social media primarily as a promotional tool to using it heavily — if not primarily — to have conversations with the audience ... Most news directors noted seeking comments, feedback or interaction. Some talked about livechat and crowdsourcing, but most of the comments dealt with conversations.”

The survey provides some additional details as to how local TV stations use social media.  More than two-thirds of station reported incorporating social networking into their content and storytelling.  36% of stations report using Twitter "constantly", but another third report using Twitter sporadically or not at all.  On Facebook, about a quarter of stations report only having a single page focused on the station, and 32% report  their single page is tied to the newsroom.  Another 37% have separate pages for both the station and the newsroom.
The report indicates that utilization of social networking by radio station still lags, despite large gains in the last year. This year, two-thirds of station report some use of social networking, while only one-third reported doing so last year.


Another report from NetProspex looked at business use of social media in the U.S.  The New York Times topped the list, and the Washington Post also made in into the top ten.  Walt Disney comes in at number 11, while Scripps Networks ranked 14th. Their study also indicated that local TV stations was the industry making the most use of Twitter.

One example of the increased emphasis comes from the 'Today' show.  This year, producers at NBC's 'Today' show began encouraging both fans and performers at their summer concert series to share tweets and photos.  Producers created unique Twitter hashtags for each event, and posted signs encouraging its use during concerts. 

After the show, they use Instagram to share and curate photos, and then assemble top tweets and photos into a story that is posted on Storify.
Senior 'Today" producer Melissa Lonner commented that, as a result, “Our concert fans show up with their cell phones to every performance ... Social media has allowed fans to immediately share the concert experience with their friends and family, and their participation has energized the concert-going experience.”
One outside indicator of success was that May's Rhiannon concert became the #2 trending topic worldwide.

There are many ways that media can use social networking - for promotions, for building greater connections with audiences and building communities, and for tracking news, events, and topics.  While not every potential use will benefit everyone, social media provide tremendous opportunity for innovation, with a little investment of time and effort.

Sources:  "Most TV stations embracing social media", lostremote.com
"RTDNA/Hofstra Survey Finds Changing Social Media Landscape for TV & Radio: Focus Shifts From Promotional to Conversational", RTNDA release
"NYTimes, TV stations among ‘most social’ companies", lostremote.com
"NetProspex Social Business Report", NetProspex release
"'TODAY' Show Engages Concert Crowds On Social Media", lostremote.com

BBC joins sports, businesses in Twitter limits.

The BBC is one of the latest groups seeking to ban or limit Twitter use by talent & staff.  Their argument is similar to what a number of sports groups have used - they don't want early leaks to reveal sensitive information that might spoil their marketing plans or reveal information that may reduce the value of their products.  The proposed policy would focus on limiting premature release of information such as storyline spoilers, casting news, or breaking news - information they want to control releasing, in order to maximize its impact or value to the BBC.

A classic hometown example of this rationale was the Southeastern Conference's plan, in 2009,  to ban social media use by fans in stadiums - they feared that revealing scores or highlights might reduce the value of their football television contract.  After two days of ridicule by press and fans, they reversed themselves, only "discouraging" fans from posting video clips during the game.

Still, concerns about controlling information flow are driving many groups and companies to develop policies to limit in-house use of Twitter and other social media.  A recent survey of businesses in Britain showed that almost half have limited social media use while on the job; the most commonly cited concern (45%) being fears about business reputation.  Similar concerns have driven may sports teams to develop social media use policies for players and other personnel; while not outright bans, the goal is to restrict certain types of information from being leaked. It's even gotten to the point where politicians try to ban social media from events (a recent example being Britain's Royal Wedding).  A more extreme example is the efforts of several nations (Egypt, China, Syria) to ban social media, particularly during times of social unrest, and the bizarre case of France telling broadcasters not to use the words "Twitter" or "Facebook" on the air.

One of the benefits, or curses, of the modern digital media world, is that it makes controlling information more difficult - not impossible, but difficult and costly.  Losing control over the message is a limit on power, and it's understandable that those in power seek to maintain and enhance it.  But what limits power to one group can also be rephrased as a shift in power to others, to their benefit.  Today, and going forward, the ability to bypass gatekeepers and those who seek to control information flows is ubiquitous - the genie's out, and those who used to be able to compel message control will need to turn to persuasion and gaining the cooperation of participants.  Which, I think, is a good thing.

Sources: "BBC acts to stop Twitter leaks by stars and writers," The Guardian
"Companies ban Twitter from workplace," The Telegraph
An old academic paper of mine that addresses control in information systems - "The Macrosocial Impact of Communication Systems: Access, Bias, Control"