Before reading this post make sure to follow me on Twitter @iancraft11 and enjoy the barrage of chapel tweets you will see on every Tuesday. In all seriousness, marketing yourself, your tweets, or your product is just that simple. With the push of a button a person can see your content, and with another press send that content to millions of people in an instant. So, a simple social media site, or a marketing genius?
In 2006, a social media site was born with little more than just five words. “Just setting up my twttr.” The incredibly simple social media site was created on the top of a playground. A group of creators sat on top of a slide to create an “idea so simple you don’t even have to think about it, just write.”
Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter, try saying that 5 times fast, which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year.From when Twitter started up in 2006 and until 2009, the amount of tweets grew at crazy high rates, approaching a 1,400% gain in daily volume year to year and around 1,000% gain in the amount per year.
Twitter is a very simple social media platform. You say what you want when you want to and to who you want to. There’s only one hitch, it’s limited to 140 characters, so as to limit the ranting factor you have on Facebook. You can even link a picture, video, or Vine to the tweet. Twitter created a feature called a “retweet” early in its life where the user can share a tweet with all that follow them with the press of a button. This allows the content to possibly be seen by 100s of 1,000s of people. Hashtags are another example of how twitter can reach the masses. If you put a hashtag, a pound sign followed by a word, on your tweet, people can search that hashtag and see all the tweets with that inside it. Followers are what make the twitter experience really interesting to the normal user. Instead of being bombarded by whatever may come your way, you can pick and choose who you follow limiting the content you see to whatever you like. A person can have multiple accounts. So, if you are someone who loves fashion or sports and likes to comment and rant about that, you can have a separate account for those specific content users you follow so as you don’t spam the friends who follow you with a mass of retweets on a topic.
As Twitter grew into this massive entity, businesses caught on immediately. Marketing teams are constantly looking for ways to easily spread their message or product to all corners of the earth, and Twitter makes this mission fit right in the palm of your hand. Twitter allows you to promote a product better than any other social media site. You can connect with millions of people with the touch of a button. Think about it, the site has 288 million monthly “highly-active” users. This doesn’t even count the full 2 billion accounts on the site. If a business, say a shoe company tweeted a picture of a new shoe and a celebrity with millions of followers retweeted it, the tweet would immediately be seen by a great deal of people, who could then retweet it to all their followers and so on. Your product just reached as many people as it would through one Super Bowl commercial, because of one retweet. Oh and did I mention this kind of marketing is free? It’s because of this that Twitter will stay as a staple in business marketing for a while.
As long as you can get your product into a box with less than 140 characters, your marketing team will be #Winning
Questions:
- Back when twitter first started, and people understood Twitter better, users would update all their followers on their every move, i.e. “I just ate a slice of pizza and it was great.” Did you ever succumb to this kind of so called snapshot tweeting?
- What is your favorite account you follow on Twitter and why? What is your favorite business that you follow on Twitter and why?
- Do you personally use Twitter more for fun, or do you stick to serious matters?
- Twitter use has dropped off significantly recently, and it’s growth rate has stalled. Why do you think that is? Do you think Twitter will respond with more ads to make up for this loss of users?
- Twitter has discussed increasing the character limit for a tweet. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one?
OBU Social Media 
Back when twitter first started, and people understood Twitter better, users would update all their followers on their every move, i.e. “I just ate a slice of pizza and it was great.” Did you ever succumb to this kind of so called snapshot tweeting?
Actually, I didn’t do this too much and I’m pretty proud of myself. I would, however, still post some major updates and still do (like how I was accepted into a grad school program).
What is your favorite account you follow on Twitter and why? What is your favorite business that you follow on Twitter and why?
Favorite account would easily be @SwiftOnSecurity, or SecuriTay. It’s a Taylor Swift parody account that focuses on computers and information security (shortened name: InfoSec). It’s a bunch of nerdy humor and I get a giggle at least 5 times a day from it.
Favorite business that I follow would easily be Nvidia. They produce PC graphics cards, tablets, and Android set-top consoles geared to gamers. They always have some kind of gaming thing going on, and they retweeted me when I said I loved the tablet I got for Christmas!
Do you personally use Twitter more for fun, or do you stick to serious matters?
Honestly, a mix of both. I have a few funny moments, but I also have lots of opinions. I like to engage other people and pick brains. I also have made connections with some of my favorite TV anchors from Dallas and made a few acquaintances on there!
Twitter use has dropped off significantly recently, and it’s growth rate has stalled. Why do you think that is? Do you think Twitter will respond with more ads to make up for this loss of users?
Because everyone uses it for political fights now and it’s no fun. J/k, political fights are ALWAYS fun. But I think people stopped using it as much because it’s easy to fall into follow-pits. Like, you follow a lot of people, but nobody follows you back and you end up have a TL that’s cluttered and loads 100 tweets per minute. Also, spam tweets and accounts that are all like “INCREASE YOUR FOLLOWERS WITH THESE TRICKS” or “FREE E-BOOK ON SALES”. Seriously, go look for these accounts. All they do is tweet links to marketing articles. As far as ads go, Twitter may just do that to make up for the loss, but it could shoot itself in the foot. It’s a universally accepted fact that most ads suck and nobody likes them nor the data mining involved in online ads, so that may very well drive users away.
Twitter has discussed increasing the character limit for a tweet. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one?
Absolutely not. Twitter has its roots in short, concise ideas being expressed in 140 characters. It was meant to be a sort of micro-blog for you.
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I think you’re completely right Matthew. Twitter really has something for everyone, whether it’s cooking buffs, or fake TSwift accounts that talk about technology. That’s what makes it so special I believe.
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Congrats on getting into grad school, Matthew! I agree with your thoughts on advertising for the most part. If twitter tries to make up for user loss by using more ads, I would guess they’d lose even more users.
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1. Yes..unfortunately I did. I would tweet every single thing I did..
2. My favorite account that I follow is probably Justin Biebers………I like seeing all of his stuff and he actually also follows me back. I don’t really follow many business. I like using twitter more for just like seeing funny things. But, I do follow Riff Raff Boutique and they’ll post their inventory and occasionally a deal or two so that’s always nice.
3.I think the ads may have some to do with it. Also, I just have kinda ran out of funny things to say. I love twitter and always will, but I use it way less than I used to. I tend to find myself scrolling through the newsfeed without really reading anything. I hardly tweet on my own now too, I use it more for Retweets.
4. Increasing the limit is good. I always hate having to chose which grammatical error to make to be able to squish all of my thoughts in. However, making it limitless would not be a good idea. We definitely don’t need novel rants posted.
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What do you think the limit should be on tweets sent Bekah? I have that problem as well trying to sacrifice grammar for space, and think another 30 characters wouldn’t hurt.
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I think another 30 characters would be perfect!!!!
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Bekah, you’re definitely right about having to chose which grammatical error to make. I suppose a few more characters would help the situation!
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Yes a few more! BUT not too many..I don’t novels up in my twitter feed!
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I agree that ads have something to do with the loss of followers. Ads are super frustrating to me and I hate seeing them on my account. I also mostly get on Twitter to favorite and retweet things I like.
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I love favoriting things..but I always am careful of what I favorite because I never know who my creep on my favorites hehehe
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Justin Bieber really follows you?? I didn’t know RiffRaff tweeted, too. I always check their deals on Instagram!
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Yes he really follows me…AND I only tweeted him like maybe 5 times for it to happen! Then boom I got noticed :))))))
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Great review, Ian! I don’t believe I tweeted my EVERY move when it first begun, but I am probably guilty of some pointless updates. Though I don’t use twitter much anymore, I think my favorite people to follow are simply my friends! I get to see their jokes and connect with them via Twitter to provide some more laughs. My favorite business I follow is probably Sky Ranch (where I work) they tweet updates, encouragement, and other news that I am interested in. I like to keep twitter fun, or at least positive! Sharing jokes, encouragement, and other positive remarks I think are the best bet for social media in general. I think Twitter has stalled because maybe it just got a little old. People were on it NON-STOP and I know for me, I just got sick of how much of my time went to scrolling on it so I deleted the app. I definitely don’t think they should increase the characters because it will make twitter a platform for rants (like Facebook has become in ways).
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Thanks Haley! I think you’re right. Twitter is a great tool for places like Sky Ranch to tweet great encouraging things, but it can definitely get addictive.
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Definitely agree with Twitter becoming too much like Facebook if it the character limit were increased.
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1.Not really. I’m not quite sure when I joined twitter, but I really didn’t see the full potential of it and barely tweeted at all.
2.I really mostly follow my friends on twitter and only look at my twitter like once a month so I can’t name an account in particular. I like the humorous accounts mostly.
3.I like the humorous accounts mostly… But if I’m really curious about local news or something I will check twitter for that.
4. Twitter just isn’t as personal as some social media since it is mostly just a bunch of one liners. If people are seeking to make connections and grow relationships, maybe this is why it has become less popular.
5. Increasing character limits wouldn’t be a good idea, in my opinion. the app would then just become everything people hate about Facebook -longwinded statuses filled with opinions that no one really wants to read.
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Lauren, I completely agree with what you said about character limits. I think that the last need we need is another social media site where people write novels about their opinions.
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I definitely agree with you on number four Lauren.With other social media you can really connect with someone, but all twitter does is provide a glance.
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Twitter is a sight that IS just a bunch of jokes and one-liners but I think that it is a site that is perfect for it and it is my favorite aspect.
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I also just look at my Twitter like once a month or just during chapel really! I really enjoy the chapel tweets. I hardly tweet at all either and when I do it is just a retweet.
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I completely agree with you about the character limit, Lauren! Facebook is the go to for those long status’ everyone avoids. Twitter is more fast-paced, and that’s the reason why they have younger users.
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I completely agree with you about the character limit. I think the requirement of posts to be short makes Twitter what it is and that an increased character limit would diminish the appeal of the website.
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1. I definitely did this. A lot of my tweets were just facts about what I was doing at that particular time.
2. I really like the funniest vines twitter account because they are always posting super funny videos. As far as businesses go, there aren’t a whole lot that I really pay attention to.
3. I use Twitter more for fun. Its a great mid day pick-me-up when you just need a good laugh.
4. Twitter isn’t like other sites with lots of pictures and things to comment on so I think that it has lost a lot of users because it has somewhat lost its personal element.
5. In some ways I wish they would because 140 characters can be really limiting, but I also think that allowing people to say more than that could get annoying and people would be less likely to read what is said.
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We seem to be the only ones who answered yes to the first question! Glad we’re on the same page with that one, but also glad that stage is over!!! hehe
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I feel the same way about the character limit. It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time. What do you think the limit should be?
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If they did increase the character limit, I think 200 might be a good number. I wouldn’t increase it much though, because longer posts belong on sites like Facebook.
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I totally agree with the mid day pick-me-up. Twitter always gives me a good laugh.
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I pretty much only use Twitter for laughs. It’s the main place I go to for funny posts. It’s something that I don’t think any service does as well.
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I love the funniest vines twitter account too! I agree on the word count issue too. It could be good to be less limited but people could get annoying.
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I love the funniest vines accounts too! They’re great for a quick laugh and always post great stuff.
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1. I think when I first joined Twitter I did a little snapshot tweeting. I rarely do a snapshot tweet anymore, people who do that drive me crazy.
2. My favorite account is probably Princess Problems. I really enjoy reading her tweets during Bachelor/Bachelorette. She always has funny stuff. I don’t really follow any businesses. I mostly follow people or funny accounts.
3. I use it for fun. I mostly read tweets from my friends or funny accounts I follow. I also use it to get caught up on any news that’s happening.
4. I think Twitter has dropped off because a lot of the things you see are just repeated. I think adding more ads would just lose even more users.
5. I think increasing the limit would be a great idea. It’s hard to tweet things sometimes because you have to cut down on sentences or make grammatical errors and it’s irritating.
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What do you think the limit should be? Do you think adding more characters would add to the adding of ads on twitter? (Sorry for the alliteration)
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I follow Princess Problems too! I have to agree that’s she’s hilarious, thus explaining her huge fan-base!
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I don’t think I ever succumbed to snapshot tweeting. If I were a dictator of a small country I would imprison anyone who does this.
My favorite Twitter account is Ridiculousness, the videos are hilarious and always give me and my friends a laugh. I don’t follow any businesses.
I personally see Twitter as a fun website and use it like one.
I think Twitter has stalled because it has become stale and it is very easy for your feed to become cluttered. I also think Instagram’s growth is also contributing to the plateau. I think they won’t use more ads because feeds would become so cluttered that no one would use it.
I think increasing the character limit is dumb because it is so much more challenging to construct a good tweet with fewer characters.
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I really agree. Twitter was new and fun for a long time, but recently they’ve run out of things to add create a new mystique. Who knows what they’ll pull out of their hat in the future
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I definitely did! I always posted about whatever homework I happened to be ignoring at the moment. Looking back at my Timehop is always really uncomfortable.
My favorite account on Twitter is a satirical account – it makes me laugh. My favorite business is the Denver Nuggets twitter account – mostly as a joke.
I use twitter for fun.
I think a large majority of Twitter’s users have turned to SnapChat for their social media fix. And I doubt that Twitter will increase ads, as this may turn even more users away.
I think this is a poor idea, because it strays from the essence of Twitter, which is a ‘short and sweet’ 140 character limit. I think that without a character limit, the app loses it’s simplicity – which was originally what was so crucial to it’s success.
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The simplicity is really what makes it special. That’s what separates it from facebook. So I agree completely with your view on the limit.
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Back when twitter first started, and people understood Twitter better, users would update all their followers on their every move, i.e. “I just ate a slice of pizza and it was great.” Did you ever succumb to this kind of so called snapshot tweeting?
No
What is your favorite account you follow on Twitter and why? What is your favorite business that you follow on Twitter and why?
None cause I really don’t have a Twitter anymore
Do you personally use Twitter more for fun, or do you stick to serious matters?
I don’t have one anymore
Twitter use has dropped off significantly recently, and it’s growth rate has stalled. Why do you think that is? Do you think Twitter will respond with more ads to make up for this loss of users?
Because other sites are doing the same thing that Twitter has to offer. So why use the other platform that does the same thing.
Twitter has discussed increasing the character limit for a tweet. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one?
I think it will be a good. Thing because it will allow more thought to get out of the human brain and on a a site.
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Did you ever succumb to this kind of so called snapshot tweeting?
I never really gotten into the Tweeting scene and when I did it was pretty late in the game and I just retweet posts.
What is your favorite account you follow on Twitter and why? What is your favorite business that you follow on Twitter and why?
I love the Fill Werrell account that is a parody account of Will Ferrell. I follow Pura Vida Bracelets and I love seeing what they post.
Do you personally use Twitter more for fun, or do you stick to serious matters?
Definitely fun.
Twitter use has dropped off significantly recently, and it’s growth rate has stalled. Why do you think that is?
The millenials are getting to busy to tweet all the time and the younger users are using other apps.
Do you think Twitter will respond with more ads to make up for this loss of users?
Possibly, but I hope not.
Twitter has discussed increasing the character limit for a tweet. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one?
Bad idea, because then it’ll be just like Facebook.
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Fill Werrell is one of my favorite accounts too. I think it’s interesting to see how similar Twitter and Facebook really are when you get down to it, and to see that a character limit really is all that divides the two at its core
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I very much so succumbed to the snapshot tweeting. Embarrassingly so, it was due to my little knowledge of Twitter at the time. My favorite account that I follow on Twitter would have to be Kent Murphy, just because I’m a HUGE baseball fan, and he tweets the most hilarious videos from the sport. I don’t believe that I follow any businesses on Twitter. I leave that for Facebook. Twitter is my goofy, clever outlet, if you will. If I have a clever saying or want to show people how my life is the epitome of a tragic comedy, I tap the Twitter icon. Once again, I leave all my serious matters for Facebook, just simply so because I have an older aged audience on Facebook, and they wouldn’t quite appreciate my wittiness as much as my audience on Twitter. I think Twitter was so popular, because it was new and exciting and no other social media site at the time was anything parallel to it. But because of it’s unique, and somewhat restricting characteristics, you can’t really toy with them to expand the empire without crossing over into another social media forum that has already been set on the market. The character limit is one of those unique characteristics. You cannot expand it, and expect it to not become something like Facebook. There’s just too many similarities.
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I was the WORST about “snapshot tweeting.” 15-year-old me was so melodramatic, too, so my daily life updates were always so blown out of proportion and very embarrassing to look back on now.
My favorite account that I follow is probably @dog_rates–they take photos of dogs that people have submitted and rate them, usually tweeting something funny along with the picture. I don’t follow very many businesses on Twitter, although my favorite is probably Tacos4Life, a local restaurant from my hometown.
I definitely use Twitter for fun more than anything. I think I’m hilarious and Twitter is usually the only way I get any gratification for it.
Other social media platforms are adapting to include everything Twitter has to offer, and I think this has led to its decline.
I think this is a bad idea. The short and sweet character limit makes Twitter what it is, and doing away with this would essentially make it the same as platforms like Facebook.
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1. I loved telling my every move on Twitter. When it first became very popular it was better than texting. Everyone was on there telling their whereabouts, why they made this decision, and why they felt and certain way about different things. It was like you were actually reading that persons mind; knowing exactly how they felt at that moment. Nothing had ever been created like that to let you be that open and honest about your life before (Not exactly sure if that’s a good thing).
2. I don’t really use Twitter at all anymore. I think it is because I used it so much when it first came out that I’ve gotten kind of burnt out on it. I did say that I would start back tweeting more and trying to connect with people through Twitter more because it was a great social media to have.
3. When I was using Twitter regularly, I was mostly using it for my benefit and for personal/not so serious matters.
4. I think it may have dropped off recently because Twitter is really not bringing anything new and different to the table for their social site. Nothing drastic has changed with Twitter and that’s why I think people have become more stagnated with the use of Twitter.
5. I don’t think increasing the character count is a big issue. That’s what they have Facebook for if they want to rant on and on, on a social media!
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Back when twitter first started, and people understood Twitter better, users would update all their followers on their every move, i.e. “I just ate a slice of pizza and it was great.” Did you ever succumb to this kind of so called snapshot tweeting?
I never did this! I may have tweeted some things that I thought were funny at the time that I prefer not to look back on, but I didn’t tweet about what my high-school cafeteria was serving that day.
What is your favorite account you follow on Twitter and why? What is your favorite business that you follow on Twitter and why?
I hardly use Twitter, but I do like the @Commonwhitegirl account. It’s pretty entertaining.
Do you personally use Twitter more for fun, or do you stick to serious matters?
The only time I get on Twitter is when a major event occurs. I will go search for hashtags pertaining to the matter because Twitter seems to be one of the fastest ways to ger news.
Twitter use has dropped off significantly recently, and it’s growth rate has stalled. Why do you think that is? Do you think Twitter will respond with more ads to make up for this loss of users?
As i’m not a user of Twitter, I don’t know from a personal perspective why Twitter has declined, but I do notice that I hardly have to update the app, so there innovation may be a problem with their growth rate.
Twitter has discussed increasing the character limit for a tweet. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one?
I think this could go either way. The limit sets the platform apart from Facebook and its long rants, but it can also be frustrating to have to limit one’s speech to fit the requirement.
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