Number One in our prayers and thoughts - #2 on Twitter

Over the last two days I watched and learned a bit more about social networking. Someone named David Appletree posting as Jewish Internet Defense Force set up a group on Facebook inviting folks to 'Tweet4Shalit' on August 26.
OK, I said to myself, here's a good use of social networking. (Although I have used Facebook to post and see photos of friends I have never really gotten the hang of Twitter.) The choice of August 26 was interesting;

"Tweet4Shalit’ is a 24 hour Twitter event in which thousands of supporters will sign onto Twitter to tweet the hashtag ‘#GiladShalit’ with the goal of making Gilad a top ten Twitter ‘Trending Topic’ two days before his birth (recognizing that his actual birthday occurs on Shabbos)."

As midnight approached on Tuesday (actually aroun 11pm) I opened up my Twitter and began seeing JDIF and others starting to post messages with the #gialdshalit. This allows Twitter to spot the keyword and count the mentions. The more there are the higher it gets on the list. When it gets into the really top ten everybody sees it. As people see this they are curious and look at the messages carrying the tag.
I really thought it wouldn't work. It seemed to me that there were so many topics on these lists that not only didn't interest me but I couldn't even figure out what they were talking about. Of course the fact that these 'tweets' are limited to 140 characters doesn't help either.
To make a long story short. 400 (of my) tweets later (I used cut and paste a lot and also an automated tweet later site) we can proudly point to this headline:

'Tweet4Schalit' campaign reaches No. 2 spot | Israel | Jerusalem Post

Now all that's left is to see Gilad Shalit arrive home safely. That will take more than a cyberworld exercise.