General Introduction
Twitter is an online social media service that allows users
to read and send short messages. These messages are called "tweets"
and can be up to 140 characters long. Users can “follow” other Twitter users.
To be a follower means you are subscribing to the tweets of another user and their
updates appear on your home tab. Users can use a hashtag (#) before a relevant
keyword or phrase in their tweet to categorize those tweets and help them show
during a Twitter search. For example, if user one likes the tweet created by user
two, user one can “retweet” the message so all user one’s followers are more
likely to read the message. A word, phrase or topic mentioned at a higher rate
than others is a "trending topic". Trending topics become popular through
a coordinated effort by users or a popular an event prompts users to talk about
a specific topic. To read tweets a person need not be a registered
user of Twitter but registration is required to create your own tweets. The
most common way use Twitter is via the Twitter app from a smart phone.
Purpose
According to Twitter.com, “Twitter is a service for friends,
family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of
quick, frequent messages.” There were methods of communicating and staying
connected via social media available before Twitter that have more features. So
why has Twitter become so popular? I believe Twitter has become popular by
giving users a feeling of importance and offering real time information about topics
of personal interest to a user that can be viewed quickly. A person gets a
feeling of importance from following and reading the tweets of famous or
important people because the messages are in real time and are short enough to
create the perception of an authentic relationship which leads to a feeling of importance
through association. Having only the headlines of important information sent to
you allows the user to better filter the constant bombardment of information we
are all subjected to. Not many people want to spend time wading through the sea
that is the 24-hour news media to find something of interest. By following
users that speak primarily about topics of interest to a person, that
individual can quickly determine if the headline they read through Twitter warrants
further attention.
Use in Business
Businesses can use Twitter different ways. Twitter can be
used to disseminate information to a large audience in real time. Assuming a
business has a notable number of followers it can create a buzz of conversation
around what the business is doing, such as, releasing a new product. The
business could also use Twitter to make announcements of important information
relating to business operations, such as, hiring a CEO, winning a court case, acquiring
another company, etc. Releasing information in a controlled manner can be
extremely advantageous for a business. Commenting on a sensitive topic via
Twitter eliminates the need for press conferences where a message could be
delivered poorly or preemptively address situations.
Directly interacting with individual customers is another
way for businesses to use Twitter. The business can directly remedy complaints
or address customer doubts posted on Twitter, turning a negative opinion of
their business into a positive one. For example, during the recent NBA playoffs
the car company Kia has several commercials where LeBron James, acting as
spokesman for Kia, debunks a false claim on Twitter that he does not drive a
Kia vehicle by directly addressing the Twitter user by name thus creating the
image Kia is a luxury brand. There are other examples of business directly
addressing people using a person’s Twitter username in a national commercial.
The business’s message to the public presumably has the same effect as a
commercial would without addressing a specific person, but for the person who
is singled out and for others that know that person it would be an unforgettable
experience and thus endear the business to that person forever.
Through my research on this topic I have read numerous
opinions about the best methods to use Twitter effectively. The five most
common suggestions I found were: keep tweets short, use one or two hashtags,
use images in tweets, include a call to action pertaining to an important
issue, and spell out the word retweet. No matter what a business’s strategy is regarding
the use of Twitter those recommendations about how to use Twitter appear to be
generally accepted.
Assessment
I believe Twitter can only be useful stand alone tool when when
used to directly interact with consumers. In my opinion, the other uses
discussed above do not offer enough utility to businesses to warrant anything
above a minimal investment of resources. As I have stated in my “Blog About
Blogs” post prior, there is not way to objectively measure ROI related to the
use of social media in general or Twitter specifically, as reported by the
Social Media Examiner’s most recent report.
I found a report from CBS News, written by Erik Sherman
April 14, 2014 to be reveling. At the time the report was written there were
974 million existing Twitter accounts. However, most of those accounts are
inactive. The report found about 44% of accounts have never sent a single
tweet, less than 25% of total accounts were logged into at least once a month,
and only 23% of accounts have tweeted in the last month. I was also made aware
of something called a Twitterbot. A
Twitterbot is a computer program that automatically tweets, retweets, and
follows accounts. One report sited on Twitter’s Wikipedia page but I could not verify
stated that in 2013 there were 20 million or fewer than 5% of accounts on
Twitter were fraudulent. The fake accounts are used to build large follower
populations quickly for advertisers or respond to tweets. So, if we take some
serious liberties with our math and assume 5% of the 23% active Twitter
accounts are fraudulent that means only 18% of accounts are used and of the 974
million people using Twitter in 2014 is actually closer to 174 million users
worldwide. While the numbers are out of date I believe they debunk the
perception of Twitter having the ability to reach a business’s target
demographic.
In addition to those statistics I believe the effectiveness
of a business (in this case a single product) can be judged by its stock
performance. Twitter’s IPO was at $26.00 per share on 11/6/13 and closed on
5/27/16 at $15.10 with its 52-week range from 5/27/16 being $13.73 to $38.82. This
shows a clear decline of the company, and thus product, value. The usage
statistics and stock price decline give me the impression Twitter is not an effective
medium for a business to rely on.
My Experience
Since joining Twitter at the start of this class and
researching it for this post I have concluded I dislike using Twitter. Creating
an account and using the service was extremely easy to do and the concepts of
how to use the platform are equally easy to understand. I understand the appeal
Twitter has to many individuals as a means to communicate. The service
certainly does allow people to stay connected and communicate with quick and
frequent messages. My biggest complaint is how the platform attempts to push me
to follow other users. My second complaint is about the types of things being
said on Twitter is overwhelmingly stupid and a waste of time to read. To prove
my point a market-research firm analyzed 2,000 tweets, originating from the
United States and in English, over a two-week period in August 2009 and
separated them into six categories: pointless babble is 40%, conversational is
38%, pass along value is 9%, spam is 4%, and news is 4%. The service would be
more appealing to me if it did not show suggestions in the margins on both
sides of my home tab of people it recommends I follow. Unfortunately, I don’t
think Twitter can do anything to fix the problem of the content being
overwhelming stupid.
References
Twitter's Wikipedia PageTwitter FAQ
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