Page 330 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

campaign, initiating nationwide scavenger hunts and

riddles with free phones as rewards. Companies such as
Comcast have found the site to be an effective

alternative for customer service. Comcast users can

tweet the customer service account “@comcastcares” with

an issue they are having, and the employees working with

the account at the time can instantly assist them

through the site just as they would through email and on
the phone.

News organizations such as CNN and Fox News have found

the site to be an attractive reporting tool as well.

Utilizing the site in the same way that a news ticker is
used, users receive tweets of news stories in real time,

sometimes faster than the reporters on the news can

report it. During a recent disaster in Japan, news

outlets and general Twitter users alike were reporting

on the devastating damage around them before it hit the
television. The TV anchor on CNN went so far as to ask

people watching or following her account to update her

on what was happening through Twitter. Twitter’s mass

appeal and ease of use even allowed news organizations

to start up through the site. The organization
@BreakingNews aggregates news from sites around the

world and pushes them to users through their account,

often much faster than large news corporations like CNN

will pick it up.