Chapter 7: Connecting with Twitter: Part A

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business 2nd Edition

Roger McHaney, Kansas State University

Twitter IntroducedTwitter impacts business communication, interaction, and connections with stakeholders

Over 500 million registered users send over 400 million unique tweets a day

Twitter-based communication has become: daily part of news broadcasts, repository of knowledge, source of business intelligence, tool for mass communication, organizational aid, wealth of helpful hints, real time repository of cultural interaction records.

Industries have grown up around Twitter ranging from data analytics, to developing marketing channels, to creating social communication platforms.

Twitter (What is it?)

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How Twitter Works

Classified as microblogging service and social media platformUser constructs a message (limited to 140 characters) sent to a list of followers.Messages are known as tweets.140 character message size enables the technology to work within the 160 character limitations of SMS protocol on mobile phone networks.

140 Characters

SMS with TwitterSMS or Short Message Service is the most widely used data application in the world

Available on nearly 80% of all phone services.

SMS technology allows tweets to move over the Internet, through fixed line phones, and within mobile communication systems.

Twitter HistoryFirst imagined by Jack Dorsey while working for Odeo

Dorsey suggested extension to existing SMS platforms that fell somewhere between texting, email, Listserv entries, and social network updates.

New tool would track friends’ activities based on short status updates.

Dorsey worked with software developer Noah Glass who named it "twttr".

Twttr launched March 21, 2006 by Jack Dorsey with a tweet at 9:50 PM that read “just setting up my twttr”.

Glass added vowels to name and twttr became “Twitter”.

Twitter reformed as its own company in April 2007.

More Twitter HistoryBy 2009, Twitter became a favorite of celebrity users and public figures.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, made public aware of how Twitter fame translated into cultural capital

Celebrities, athletes, and politicians became regular Twitter users.

Twitter’s appeal became undeniable for those seeking publicity. • Provided a direct link without needing an intermediary. • Previously, celebrities relied on the popular press and publicity agents. • Unedited messages sent directly in real time to millions of connected followers. • Control over content remained with the celebrity.

Politicians were able to maintain connections with their supporters. • Barack Obama tweeted messages and received tweets and used the information to fine-tune his

campaign.

Twitter and CelebritiesDevelopers of Twitter recognized the benefit of ensuring Twitter could be used by high profile individuals. Celebrities benefit and Twitter’s popularity surged each time a celebrity tweet was publicized in mainstream press.

Twitter employs staff members to work with publicity agents and media public relations staff to ensures Twitter is used in high profile advertising and publicity campaigns. Twitter provides support and promotional tools that can help create buzz among potential followers.

Celebrity Pretenders

Verified Accounts

A special symbol is displayed next to the account name to show Twitter has ensured account accurately represents person or company depicted

Twitter Goes ViralTwitter is a rare example of a social media service that took on a life of its own.

Users began organizing their tweets and introducing new conventions.

Jargon developed that described a variety of actions within Twitter.

Example User Innovation: @

Twitter user names needed to be identified within the context of a tweet.

Someone came up with the idea of placing the ‘@’ symbol in front of names to help identify a username.

The idea caught on and was added to the Twitter platform as a permanent feature.

Now, @username is the standard way of addressing a Twitter user (called a handle).

@

Example User Innovation: #

Initially, hashtags were used on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks to help find group messages related to a particular topic.

Twitter users began using hashtags to help group conversations.

Twitter developers took notice and on July 1, 2009, Twitter started to hyperlink all hashtags in tweets to facilitate searches.

About one year later, “Trending Topics” added to Twitter home page to list most popular hashtags.

#

Example User Innovation: RT

Another example of user innovation in Twitter is the use of the characters ‘RT’ to represent retweets.

The ‘RT’ convention gave users a way to repost tweets sent out by others.

Counting retweets provides a measure of popularity of a particular message.

Twitter developers, in August of 2010, incorporated ‘RT’ into their core platform

RT

End ofChapter 7 Part A

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business 2nd Edition

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Slides Prepared by Professor Roger McHaney Kansas State UniversityTwitter: @mchaneyBlog: http://mchaney.comEmail : mchaney@ksu.edu