The Incredible Power of Twitter

The world has been changing rapidly over the last decade, and nothing has had a bigger hand in that then technology, namely things involving the Internet.

Twitter really burst on to the scene in 2011. If you are between the age of 15 and 30, you would probably be hard pressed to rattle off ten of your friends that don’t have a Twitter account. For you wiser folks, you could probably rattle off a long list of people that don’t have it, but I’m also pretty sure that you could name a bunch of your friends that do have it.

Everybody likes being heard, so it’s not surprise that people hop on these chances to get their thoughts and opinions out there. Twitter’s impact has become especially big among sports fans.

The other night, @rtjr and myself (@McEffect) started tweeting at Edwin Jackson (@EJ36), jokingly telling him to sign with Pittsburgh. A hashtag (#EJaxToBucs) was added by @MrHammar and the campaign began. What happened was nearly historic. The hashtag was trending in Pittsburgh in about 20 minutes and the tweets went on for several hours into the late hours of the night. Jackson woke up to the tweets and gave “Bucs Nation” a shout out, right before officially signing with the Washington Nationals. The next day, Yahoo! Sports, among several other websites, wrote about the campaign.

Pirate fans also got the #ElectricStuff hashtag going last year about Pirates pitcher Charlie Morton. That also went crazy, it became nearly universal for Pirate fans, broadcasters, and even players everywhere. You’re sure to see it a lot more in 2012.

In the past there haven’t been a lot of Pirate players on Twitter, but a handful of them have jumped on this year. Here’s what we have as of right now:

Five years ago, none of this was possible. There was no way for a group of fans to get national attention so easily. Nobody had to leave the comfort of their home to make this happen, they just had to type a few things on their computer or smartphone. Crazy.

The bottom-line here is short and sweet. If you want the most out of your sports fanhood, you need to get involved (or more involved) with Twitter.

Now obviously I don’t have the full knowledge to really say this, but Pittsburgh has to have some of the best tweeps out there. Bloggers work extremely hard, the people are extremely creative, and all the efforts together add up to make the baseball experience in this city a lot more enjoyable.

Before the season gets going, I’m going to compile a list of must-follows for the 2012 season, so keep an eye out for that.

And be sure to follow the RumBunter team, if you aren’t already.

@rumbunter | @cocktailsfor2 | @RumbunterPodcst | @edwordtoyourmother | @McEffect

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