The past week will be long-remembered for the way in which the previously slow-burning News of the World hacking affair suddenly caught light.

Many hands were at play as the flames were stoked (step forward The Guardian and Mumsnet, amongst others), but I was struck by the role that numerous voices on Twitter – many of whom household names – acted as lightning rods for collating information and inciting the masses.

Maybe it’s just my penchant for following politicised, liberal individuals of a certain level of public renown, but the way in which the likes of @DaraOBriain (500,000 followers), @RufusHound (285,000), @SuePerkins (105,000) , @LaurenLaverne (92,000), @Prodnose (Danny Baker, 75,000) – and even, in a gentler way (@Wossy, 1.1 m) – launched into the NotW and its management in such an angry, public, tub-thumping way struck me as being a first for Twitter. These are mid-major level public figures, all borne of the BBC, who temporarily held back from posting anodyne musings and witty asides and instead decided to try and mobilise the public behind a common agenda. They had a fair wind at their backs, but they succeeded all the same.

To date, Twitter has always struck me as being about the individual – it was a way of one person broadcasting their news, or for another to follow. Naturally, you can extend this to include the way that groups of individuals, organisations and media outlets broadcasted more widely, but the recipient still felt part of a one-to-one communication at some level.

Twitter has also long been used as a means of addressing customer service issues – for many service companies, Twitter is a simple and direct way to engage with consumers and their grievances (@BTcare, etc.).

But here’s the thing, last week we saw these hitherto benign public faces align behind a topical and politically charged cause, with the sole view of using their public leverage to bring about change. And this change wasn’t ‘for the good’ in the way that support for a charitable or environmental cause might be; this was to bring down a major player in the UK media landscape. Their influence, in my opinion, was considerable.

Their output was also not without significant individual risk – invoking the wrath of News International comes at an almost guaranteed cost – how long till The Sun exposes Dara or Rufus for some matter of major public interest?

I’m not to judge whether their actions were worthy, or if they will have a lasting impact on the methods and output of the UK media, but I do believe that their actions brought Twitter to the top table for the first time – it has now proven itself to be an agent of change.

Encouraged by their success, we can expect to see more of this. I note with interest that in the last few days @The_SteveCoogan (1,000 followers) and @GrantHugh (7,000) – both of whom voiced strong opinions on Newsnight in the past week – have now taken to Twitter for the first time.

The week that Twitter grew up? Maybe, but most definitely a fascinating time.