5 Things You Didn’t

Know About Twitter

By: Deanna Maurone Keegan Woyurka

1.What Exactly Is Twitter?Twitter almost never happened. It derived from the company called Odeo in 2006; Odeo helped individuals publish audio. With a lack of growth and investors losing interest, the company pivoted and decided to conduct a hackathon one day. This brainstorming competition led to the birth of Twitter. Twitter was created by Evan Williams, Kevin Systrom, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. The company now is worth ~16 billion.

2. TWITTER HAS 6 DISTINCT COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

1.Polarized Crowds

2.Tight Crowds

3.Brand Clusters

4.Community Clusters

5.Broadcast Network

6.Support Network

Polarized and Tight Crowds: 1. This type illustrates different groups of Twitter users

who discuss polarizing topics. They often rely on different sources of information and commonly do not interact with groups that disagree with them. Example: Politics

2. This type captures close communities, such as conferences, professional topics and hobby groups, where participants strongly connect to one another for information, ideas and opinions. Example: Sports teams

Brand and Community Clusters:

3. This type is formed around products and celebrities. These popular topics attract large fragmented Twitter populations, generating mass interest, but little connectivity. Example: Public Events, Popular Subjects Using Hashtags.

4. These groups are created around global news events and popular topics. Communities from around multiple news sources. These community clusters are mostly disconnected from one another. Example: Global News Events.

Broadcast and Support Networks:

5. This type is often triggered by news media outlets and experts who have loyal followers who retweet them. These communities are often star-shaped, as little interaction exists among members of the audience. Example: News experts and media outlets, famous individuals, Hoodie Allen.

6. This type is created when companies, government agencies, or organizations respond to complaints and customer requests. The company, or hub, account replies to many disconnected users, created outward spokes. Example: Companies with customer support, American Airlines

3. Marketers Say Written Content Trumps Visuals

What Can You Do With This Stat?● In a social landscape dominated by visuals, it is

written content that most resonates with marketers.

● Over half of marketers (58%) claim written content is their most important form of social content.

● Visual content came in second (19%.)

4. Less Than an Hour = Best Response Time

Continued...● Consumers expect a lot from you on Twitter, as

recent research by Lithium Technologies confirms. (Lithium Technologies provides social customer experience management software for the experienced marketers who focus on long-term strategic goals such as community building and increasing brand awareness)

● The real-time nature of Twitter has led to incredible expectations.

● According to Lithium, 53% of users who tweet at a brand expect a response within the hour. The percentage increases to 72% for those with a complaint. (Support Network Communication)

● When companies don’t meet these response expectations, 38 % feel more negatively about the brand and a full 60% will take unpleasant actions ot express their dissatisfaction. ○ Ex. telling family and friends not buy their products or not

to buy from the company anymore.

5. Late Night = Best Hours for Retweets ( 9 pm- 2 am)

Recent additions to TwitterPopularity measurements: impressions, media engagements, detail expands, likes, profile clicks. As well as polls to vote on.

(Cont.) Twitter Polls●New addition to Twitter to gain more audience/user engagement.

Other [little] facts about Twitter

Facebook has attempted to buy Twitter numerous times; each time this happened, Twitter joked about their action with the “Dislike” button.

Posts are limited to 140 characters because of the basic SMS phone that Twitter based its design on.

Following the Boston bombings, Twitter promoted Boston and gave the city a free hashtag (#OneBoston)

Tweets with hashtags receive twice as much engagement than those without hashtags.

Twitter was initially called Twitch. They found the name Twitter in the Oxford Dictionary which means a short inconsequential burst of information, chirps from birds. The founders agreed on it because it was the direction the company was going (CNBC.com) .

How to Brand Yourself Using Twitter:1. Claim your Twitter handle

2. Decide how you want to brand yourself

- This is how people will find you and recognize you now and in the future, so be honest. Don’t brand yourself as an expert unless you already are one.

3.Become known as an expert or resource

- By constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you.

4. Establish a Twitter marketing plan

- Ex. email, newsletter, etc.

QUESTIONS?

References - http://www.fastcompany.com/3032553/work-smart/10-significant-thi

ngs-you-likely-didnt-know-about-social-media-but-should

- http://www.cnbc.com/2014/03/21/140-things-you-dont-know-about-twitter.html

- http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1780000/1772751/p591-kwak.pdf?ip=166.66.146.27&id=1772751&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&key=A792924B58C015C1%2E214E61DC04C0E54C%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35&CFID=594093837&CFTOKEN=37349360&__acm__=1458745800_bb75e53daf115b8401648be003bc1a22

- http://www.lithium.com/company/news-room/press-releases/2013/consumers-will-punish-brands-that-fail-to-respond-on-twitter-quickly