The less than 140 character tweet by Amanda Bonnen traveled across the world in nanoseconds and produced a fury of commentary about the propriety of expressing opinions via the new social media vehicles.  Amanda chose Twitter, where there is a 140 character limit, which by definition, minimizes that capacity to tell the story.

Do any of us know what really happened? No. What do we know? A tenant was unhappy. The landlord did not respond in a way that met the tenant’s expectations. The tenant expected that the Landlord should “care” more about the tenant. So the tenant complains publicly via a social media network. ( She could have filed some kind of lawsuit and said the same thing. Likely, although it would have been a public document, not many people  would have seen it. It would have cost her a few bucks in filing fees, could not be limited to 140 characters, and the world would not know about Amanda Bonnen or Horizon Realty.

So the tweet had its 48 hours of fame, and demonstrated the power of social media, the ability of traditional news outlets to capture and explode an issue’s awareness, and the opportunity for all of us to have opinions about Amanda, Horizon, Twitter, social media, news coverage, lawsuits, etc.

Amanda apparently had less thatn 20 “followers” but the power and efficacy of Twitter was that the tweet and the lawsuit were distributed to millions in seconds. If Amanda had tweeted that she had a good experience with Horizon Realty rather than a bad one – would we have ever heard of her or Horizon? Not likely.

For me, in the wake of all of that — it struck me — Why doesn’t good news travel as fast as bad news? I am on Twitter (@valentilaw) and am by no means a real social media expert. I follow all kinds of people, from all kinds of businesses and backgrounds. In my small “tworld,” in response to Twitter’s prompt of “what are you doing?”  — I see people ( 99.9% of whom I have never met)    share all kinds of information about their lives, their likes, their dislikes, frustrations, happiness, unhappiness, their work, their lack of work, and their passions.

 Some tweets make me smile, sometimes I laugh out loud, some inspire me, and yes, some make me  cringe. Some educate me. Some introduce me to the work  of others. Many things I choose to share ( re-tweet) but most I do not. Most tweets do not strike me one way or the other. But I know that they are meaningful to others. (I may not care what you are cooking for dinner, but I am sure others do.) The point is that sharing 140 characters allows others to think and respond to something quickly. So we read the “twit” and make an assessment of what to do — some contain links to news articles; research; photos; videos; even restaurant menus — depending upon what attracts us, we look further.  This is a powerful way to spread the word about anything — Amanda and Horizon Realty proving the point.

So here is my thought —-

Let’s use the power of the new social media outlets to share the good things that are out there — the volunteer work, the fund-raising, the acts of kindness, the thankfulness, and the accolades that are expressed repeatedly. Tweeting good news may travel  more slowly. But who cares? Like the check that comes by snail mail instead of the cash by direct deposit — you can spend it just the same.