Is Twitter ubiquitous

Social media is any web based environment that allows users to easily create, publish and share content. It transforms one to many monologues into many to many dialogues. It’s a change in how people discover, read and share news, information and content .In recent years; social media has emerged as a major channel for broadcasting information. For instance, by late 2011 there were over 173 million public blogs and 250 million messages (“tweets�) being sent each day through the popular micro blogging platform Twitter. This social media platform may be utilized by a firm for different (non-exclusive) purposes. For example, it may be used as a media outlet, a viral marketing platform or a customer insights platform.

Twitter is a very popular social media platform that allows users to share “tweets� (text messages up to 140 characters long) with their “followers� (other users who choose to subscribe to a user’s feed of tweets).Foundation date of twitter is 21 mar 2006and its headquarter is in San francisco, California and its users about 500 million (May 2013).Its revenue is about $ 140 million .Country with most twitter users isChina,35.5 million. Most followed celebrity on twitter-Justin bieber with 36.4 million followers.

TWITTER IS UBIQUITOUS

Like Terrell Owens, Carrie Underwood, and Coke Zero, Twitter is almost universally on the radar of Americans. 87% of respondents had heard of Twitter, compared to 88% who had heard of Facebook.

CONVERTING AWARENESS TO USAGE

Known by 87%, just 7% of Americans use Twitter. Thus, fewer than one in 13 Americans who know about Twitter, actually use Twitter. Compare that ratio to Face book, where 88% have heard of it, and 41% have a profile.

VOCAL MINORITY

While only 7% of Americans are using it, the Twitter population is still 17 million people, which is roughly equivalent to the combined populations of Connecticut, Oregon, Kentucky, Kansas, and Oklahoma. And while substantially smaller than the Face book brigade, the Twitter crew is tuned in to brands like nowhere else on the social Web.49% of monthly Twitter users follow brands or companies, compared to just 16% of social network users overall. Put another way, Twitter users are 3 times more likely to follow brands than Face book users. Combined with their above average income and above average education, twitter users’ propensity to interact with brands makes them a huge potential source for Mass Influencers.

BRAND INTERACTION IS THE MAJOR PART

In addition to following brands, Twitter user’s research and engage with companies. 42% learn about products and services via Twitter. 41% provide opinions about products/services. 19% seek customer support.

POPULAR WITH AFRICAN AMERICANS

Forrester’s Tamara Barber recently published a report showing Hispanic usage of Face book and other social networks far outpacing usage by non-Hispanic White Americans. This Edison Research shows that for Black Americans, the social network of choice may very well be Twitter, as 25% of Twitter users are African Americans (approximately double the U.S. population).Tom Webster theorizes this may be due to Twitter’s functional similarity to text messaging, as several studies have shown Black Americans use the mobile Web at rates roughly double that to non-Hispanic Whites. Certainly, the tie between Twitter and mobile is strong, as 63% of Twitter users access social networks via mobile phone, compared to 34% of social networkers as a whole. Also, 73% of Twitter users send SMS text messages multiple times per day. And, 49% of Twitter users have an iPod, compared to 28% of the total U.S. population.

SPEAK NO EVIL

Maybe I just don’t get it, but I don’t really see the point of Twitter if you’re not engaged and interacting. But according to these findings, 53% of Twitter users never post any updates. To me, this reemphasizes the needs to be keyword smart in your Tweets, and to not dip into the pool of banality. Even though half your customers may not be tweeting or retweeting, they ARE watching, reading, and clicking.

DISADVANTAGES OF TWITTER

1. Most of the Twitter accounts are either inactive or not used regularly.
2. Twitter has lots of spamming problem. Many users using twitters only to promote their website, blog, article, products etc.
3. Twitter often is overloaded and you can’t use it for a while
4. Beside tweeting and sharing pictures there is nothing much to do where face book offers verities of stuff.
5. It’s not as effective as Face book in Business prospective views. If you are looking for traffic to your product, website or service then Face book Fan pages can bring more traffic then Twitter account.
6. You really need lots of followers to get success in twitter in promoting your stuff online
7. A lot of people try to obtain many followers by purchasing rogue software. Not only the app fails, it also marks a user as spam and banns his/her profile permanently.

Blog by:- Stuti Upadhyay

*** The views expressed here are the views of the contest participants and myRosys takes no responsibility for any views expressed here in the blog. The ownership of the blog lies with the contest participant and no third party is allowed to use this blog. ***