When Twitter was introduced to my company in 2008, I thought
it was destined to be a fad, that this sort of microblogging would fade away,
that the world would never get used to cramming ideas into 140 characters. I
didn’t think much use could come out of such a limiting tool. I was the
beneficiary of many days of humor as I sat outside the salesmen’s offices who
gave their unsolicited opinions of Twitter and of what those who tweeted could
do with their tweets! But our Marketing Communications expert persisted and
before we knew it, we were tweeting and accepting that the world had found a
new way to send and receive messages of widely varying degrees of relevance to
ever-widening audiences.
The challenge is to take Twitter beyond the mundane reports
of burning English muffins and develop it into an effective communication tool
for organizations. Twitter forces up to cut to the chase and deliver the hook
that keeps people engaged. I’ve seen many creative uses of Twitter but none as
powerful as what recently extended from Michele Norris’ “The Race Card Project.”
Ms. Norris, a co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered, wrote a memoir which blossomed from her
exploration of the hidden conversation on race which unfolded in America after
President Obama’s election. On her book tour, as a means of getting the
conversation started, she asked people to write their thoughts on race, in six
words or less, on a postcard she provided. What often happened was people took
the postcards home with them, thought about it, and sent them back to her. The
project began over a year ago. In the past two weeks, her project has taken on
a life of its own. She has heard from people all around the world and has
posted many of the responses on the Project's website.
She continues to receive responses via mail, email and Twitter and continues to
invite viewers to submit their six words on her website. In the aftermath of
the tragedy of Trayvon Martin’s death in Florida last month, Ms. Norris’
collection offers varying perspectives and poignant reminders of where we are
with race, where we have been and where we are going. All captured in six words
or less.
It is amazing to me how powerful a few carefully selected
words can be.
In Washington DC last week, I had a chance to visit the new
memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. If you want to see some powerful words, go
there. Phrases from his speeches line the memorial’s arcing walls. MLK had a vision of
where we should go, not based on race, but on our inner being.
We often take words for granted. It is easy to forget that
we live in a country where freedom of speech is a right rather than a
privilege. How important it is to use our words - whether six or more - to spark
the conversations that can bring understanding and lead us to treat one another
as equals.
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