During the Mumbai attacks, we saw Twitter become a valuable source of information as first hand accounts of the unfolding events flooded onto the microblogging service. Last Tuesday, the Israeli government, noticing the active Twitter discussion of the Gaza fighting that wasn’t very complimentary of the Israeli side, tested it out as a public relations tool, conducting what it called “the first governmental press conference ever held on Twitter.” The news conference was open to anyone with a Twitter account, and responses were written in typical text fashion, using abbreviations and number substitutions for words.

The Israeli consulate’s head of media relations in New York David Saranga told The Jerusalem Post that he had turned to Twitter because it reaches a younger audience that does not consume mainstream media such as television or newspapers. Saranga told the JP, “This is a young audience that doesn’t want to hear history or long-winded stories. It wants clear, short and on-topic responses. That’s Twitter and that’s our goal: short and precise responses that answer their questions.” He also defended his use of SMS shorthand, telling the International Herald Tribune, “I speak to every demographic in a language he understands. If someone only speaks Spanish, I speak in Spanish; if someone is using a platform like Twitter, I want to tweet.”

The IHT has some choice outtakes:

Q: From peoplesworld—40 years of military confrontation hasn’t brought security to Israel, why is this different?
A: From israelconsulate—We hav 2 prtct R ctzens 2, only way fwd through neogtiations, & left Gaza in 05. y Hamas launch missiles not peace?

Q: EhsanAhmad—you didn’t get my point that Hammas is an elected govt and if u keep attacking them they got right to attack you
A: israelconsulate—if hamas’s goal were 2 btr the lives of its cit. they wouldn’t target IL. they would invest in edu/hlth not in bombs

Q: shahidkamal—Your nation has been disgraced on Twitter. This inverted Nuremberg Trial will not rescue your image.
A: israelconsulate: the point of this was to hear what ppl say and to share our POV with fellow twitters.

It does get you thinking, with Twitter as popular as it is, and with as many people finding ways to use it, why can’t Twitter just find a business model to exploit this?