Flip, I love Twitter. When rumblings of a squabbling board arose I felt a sadness in my tummy, when their stock price began to rise after the Silverlakes buy in I rejoiced and when they started talking about algorithms I swore along with everyone else.
However, this is not about my glaring hate for Twitter’s bad boardroom decisions at the moment. Rather I thought I’d share some of the things I love about Twitter, to remind us not to give up hope just yet.
I present to you: The hashtag.
A simple button on the keyboard that grow up into phrases that immediately allowed us a chance to create conversations with our online friends on a global, national and local level.
Remember some of these beauties?
Let’s be honest, the best hashtags are the random ones that usually make us giggle but still have a biting commentary underneath them. Remember the gems like #IfEskomWasA or #Loadshedding that allowed us to vent our frustrations when the lights went out?
And, while there is a lot of hate and aggression on the social platform I do also love how it allows us to rally together as a nation. Remember how the #ZumaMustFall hashtag became a means to declare your unhappiness with our leader? I wonder if he really will pay back the money?
The real beauty here though was I’ve not needed to renew my DSTV subscription because I can just watch Twitter to catch up on my favourite shows. I love how everyone live tweets what goes on in our favourite TV shows like Big Brother Mzansi (off topic, have you seen some of the original Big Brother contestants? They did not age well!), Idols and Date My Family.
I loved how Twitter was used by South Africa’s rising gaming industry to further build communities. Brands like Celestial Games used the service to advertise their Toxic Bunny Game while Springbok Casino promoted their online games of blackjack using hashtags on Facebook (cross pollination magic my friends) to let gamers know the latest news about the ease with which they could play a huge variety of table games, all from the convenience of their mobile device.
And even the rapidly-growing world of competitive gaming has benefitted with Telkom Do Gaming providing an extra way for fans to keep up with events through their constantly-updated Twitter feed.
But seeing as South Africa is somewhat sports-obsessed, it was no surprise to find that it was the 2015 Rugby World Cup that dominated many people’s mobile devices. And although the criminal convictions against Oscar Pistorius had a predictable wave of hashtags being generated, there were some unlikely examples of Twitter wit, with many calling for imprisoned hip-hop artist Molemo ‘Jub Jub’ Maarohanye to be freed with their self-styled Twitter campaign.
However, there were certain global trends that South Africa wasn’t immune from. And with the likes of even Archbishop Desmond Tutu succumbing to the ice bucket challenge, it showed the incredible power that social media networks like Twitter have for providing international exposure to online gaming brands, political factions and even your very own digital operations!
Take a moment to digitally hug Twitter man. Let’s hope it doesn’t go anywhere soon (or change too much. Delete that algorithm devs, delete it now!).