When Twitter first burst onto the Social Media scene, it was a concept completely unheard of. 140 character posts and people 'follow' me?! It honestly seemed ridiculous to me. But Twitter then began to spread rapidly, with everyone I knew able to be contacted at the touch of the @ key. Since joining Twitter, I have made 56,050 tweets. A bit excessive but I guarantee most of those tweets were either my horoscope being automatically tweeted or about how I was "so bored of this train."
I couldn't resist this Game of Thrones/Twitter crossover.
(Quick Meme, 2013)
Although my tweets about being bored were very captivating, Twitter has been used by businesses to increase awareness and to promote their goods & services. As Patrick Stafford (2010) expressed in his article, Twitter can be highly useful in promoting a business. I have seen many businesses create interest in their products or services by holding 'giveaways' or offering incentives to those who 'retweet' their tweets. By doing this, the business increases its reach to consumers and may gain more followers who will then buy what they're offering.
Twitter is also used by governments and organisations to provide information on important events. As an avid train-catcher, I follow the Sydney Trains twitter, who post about possible delays or trackwork, so as I'm scrolling through my feed and see a tweet about a delay on my line, I can then proceed to tweet about my annoyance that I have to wait 35 minutes due to urgent signal repairs. Twitter is also used to broadcast information about natural disasters, warnings, and other urgent information.
The future of twitter seems unclear, as many people I know have stopped using it due to so many other social networking sites becoming available every day. In my opinion, Twitter is a highly useful tool in communication important information to a large number of people, but the expanding roles of Facebook and Instagram are tending to draw people away from the 140-character delight that is Twitter.
References
Quick Meme 2013, 'Why Doesn't George R.R. Martin Use Twitter?', Quick Meme, viewed 8 December 2013, <http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3upw3b>
Stafford, P 2010, 'How Twitter will change your business', Smart Company, 30 November, viewed 8 December 2013, <http://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/economy/6751-how-twitter-will-change-your-business.html>
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