Twitter can do a lot of things – but now it can even make tea…! Poorly Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays Hayley Cropper, who managed to haul herself from her sick-bed yesterday afternoon to walk the dog and pick up the kids obviously had to return to bed later in the day to recover. Meanwhile, her other-half Ian Kershaw was busy downstairs being a good Dad. So just how could Julie get a cup of tea when her poorly voice couldn’t shout downstairs? Twitter..!

Julie sent a Tweet to Ian and then asked her Twitter followers to do the same. Before long a cup of tea made its way upstairs with Ian then writing: “Thanks everyone – Ju’s got her brew now (no biscuits though, she’s ill, I’m not *folds jammy dodger in gob*)”. Well done Twitter…! You managed to bring a poorly woman a much-needed cuppa.

When you can’t use your voice you need another communications vehicle. Writing a note and throwing it down the stairs may have worked, of course, but that would have taken longer for the happy family in the kitchen to have noticed it. Julie could have got up and walked downstairs, but obviously wasn’t up to that. She could have phoned – but then how do you make yourself clear if your voice isn’t working well? Texting an SMS message is another possibility – but that can cost money…! Twitter is the obvious choice…! And it has another benefit – people power. Not only could Julie ask for her tea, but Ian felt the social pressure of all those adoring fans demanding he put the kettle on.

It is an interesting example of an unusual use of Twitter. It was never invented for getting cups of tea…! But that’s the fascinating thing about Twitter – every day people invent new uses for it. Twitter is a status updater, a conversation tool, a search engine, a quiz machine, an information distribution engine, an emergency tool and a host of other things all done within 140 characters.

So it begs the question – if Julie can get Twitter to make a cup of tea, what are you going to use it for in your business today?

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