Last month, Mike Soltys, a media relations vice president at ESPN, announced the termination of ESPN sports personality Steve Phillips. As you may know, Mr. Phillips has been embroiled in a nasty sex scandal. I don’t watch ESPN, but I’m quite sure that ESPN must have announced this action on the air at some point. Maybe even held a press conference and issued a press release or two.

But the fact that it was announced on Twitter in exactly 134 characters, including punctuation and spaces, is astounding evidence of Twitter’s ability to serve as a media outlet unto itself, even in the eyes of a media professional and the multi-million dollar media outlet that employs him.

While ESPN may have hosted a press conference, may have issued a press release, and may be getting traditional media coverage, the company still made a point to announce the news on Twitter.

Does that tell you anything about the power you have as a small and independent business owner with a Twitter page?

Question: What does ESPN have that you don’t have? I challenge you to name one thing that makes a difference.