Twitter Iran News - The New Power Of Social Microblogs Over Traditional Media

Twitter is being used instead of CNN and other traditional media for news covering the current Iranian demonstrations and civil unrest.

Twitter is probably the second most popular social network in the World after Facebook. The power of social media websites is becoming evident with the developments of the Iranian elections and demonstrations.

The most tweeted words used in June 09 are

• Twitter Iran Elections
• Twitter in Iran
• News Iran
• Iran on Twitter
• Iran Election Twitter

Thousands of twitter followers tweet about these issues. They discuss the breaking news as it unfolds. In fact, throughout the Iran Elections, users on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace blogged about police brutality and killings. Twitter users uploaded photos and videos with their mobile phones. These images and videos were posted by Twitter users all over the world; taking the entire news viral and spreading it at the speed of light around the internet.

The Iran Government has attempted to filter and block Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts to prevent demonstrators from orgainising themselves. However, Twitterers were quick on re-tweeting news on Iran whereas CNN has been slow to react to the developments in Iran.

The BBC has led the way for the traditional media. Nevertheless, CNN has now been more active at posting stories about the Iranian demonstrations since the story went viral on Twitter. This is a coup for the web and social networks such as Twitter. The traditional news networks now follow Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to ensure they keep up with significant and popular news stories.

The most powerful users on Twitter who are able to take stories viral are Twitterers with thousands of followers. Twitter users who want more followers to increase the readership of their tweets should consider using Become A Celebrity On Twitter