Sinking Titanic on Twitter
The sinking of the Titanic is probably the most famous maritime disaster in history. Exactly 102 years ago, the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton. Its destination, which it never reached: New York.
The ship rammed into an iceberg and sank a few hours later. More than 1500 people lost their lives. Everyone has been familiar with this tragic story since the 1997 film adaptation starring Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, English book publisher The History Press recreated the disaster - in real time, on Twitter. "Experience Titanic's epic journey with minute-by-minute tweets as if from on board the ship itself." This is the description of the Titanic account @TitanicRealTime, which currently has over 69,000 followers. The campaign was repeated again this year. The first tweet was posted just over a month before the anniversary of the disaster. Numerous other messages followed over the next few weeks. Depending on the author of the tweet, different hashtags were used, such as #captain, #crew or #engineer. All tweets are based on testimonies from survivors. In addition to the crew, the passengers also had their say, such as #firstclass, who raved about the magnificent chandelier, the delicious food or the beautiful weather: "Woke up to yet another marvelous morning. The weather truly has been kind to us this far."
Of course, thanks to the original live feed, we were also able to witness the dramatic sinking of the "Unsinkable" up close. After the iceberg collision at 23:40, the first desperate tweet came from the # captain: "Just been woken by a tremendous crashing sound, what is going on out there?". This was followed by more from the #crew: "How can this be happening? This ship is unsinkable!" and the #thirdclass: "Water is beginning to build up, this is not looking good! Where is my wife?" until the moving #bandmaster: "Gentlemen, the end I fear is fast approaching, what to play next... Nearer My God To Thee, I think."
Since its launch in 2011, the account now has almost 70,000 followers. In the meantime, @TheHistoryPress also uses this channel to cross-promote other products. The followers accept this. With this project, The History Press, a dusty old-school publisher, shows us once again that everyone has a right to be active on social media, because the only thing you need is the right (credible) idea.
Manuel P. Nappo, Director of Studies CAS Social Media Management HWZ Zurich University of Applied Sciences. www.fh-hwz.ch/smm
