Section 1: the scope and importance of using social media tools like Twitter
With the advent of technology, life as we have always known it to be has changed considerably. The most significant change has been the development and popularity of the Internet. As the web continues to expand, so does its users and its uses. Inarguably, one of the most recent and phenomenal of these has been the evolution of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Social media is a platform that allows millions of people from all backgrounds and locations to interact freely with one another without any interruptions; this can be for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Thus, it is not surprising that it has become an integral part of the modern world and is a force to be reckoned with. Not only is it here to stay, but it is also quickly transforming the way and speed at which information is spread and shared. This does not only apply to personal information, thoughts and opinions that they share; it also holds huge and immeasurable implications for politics, economics, artwork, businesses and trading.
Twitter is one of the most prominent and popular examples of social media that exist today. It has a large number of registered users who constantly update their accounts through a mechanism referred to as tweeting. It can be difficult to imagine exactly how vast a platform it is and how quickly new information is generated on it. Therefore, it may prove to be helpful to begin by looking at a few numbers and statistics that can give us valuable insight into the significance of Twitter, in terms of information capacity and access.
It is estimated that the total count of all presently active Twitter accounts is somewhere around a staggering 645,750,000 and what is even more shocking is that this number is continuously increasing. This social media giant typically gains about 135,000 new users on a daily basis; collectively, all of these users manage to put out roughly 58 million tweets every single day. It is exactly these characteristics that make Twitter a great tool for all trade-related activities.
According to the infographic shown below, you can see the latest facts and figures for twitter in 2014.
Twitter allows for an ever-growing readership because Tweets can be re-tweeted, otherwise known as re-posting information, by other users who can then help to spread the word even further. This sets up a kind of chain reaction that would otherwise be impossible to achieve using any other kind of strategy. The most interesting part is that all of this can be accomplished with the simple click of a button. Hence, it allows for efficient use of time, which is often the most valuable of all resources available, especially in the trading industry as time is of the essence.
Another additional bonus that makes Twitter an irreplaceable tool for reaching out to others is that it is absolutely free and anyone can sign up without paying any charges. They do not even need to pay at a later stage and can continue to benefit from the service for as long as they want. This makes it a very cost-effective way of intermingling with the public, which usually comes with a very heavy price tag in most other situations.
Studies and analyses have shown that more and more companies are taking their trading businesses to social media platforms so that they can engage a wider audience. It has become absolutely essential that they do so because this seems to be the most successful method of building a relationship with people. This is indeed the fastest way to get them to identify with you and your cause because it allows them to not only read what you have to say, but also allows them to provide you with their feedback. This makes them feel like they have a direct contact with you. They can even use Twitter to ask any questions that they may have on their minds.
With general awareness levels rising all across the globe, this has become the need of the hour because the psychology and behaviour of people today greatly differs from how things used to be several years ago. They want to have complete knowledge regarding a situation before they make any final decisions; this is the key difference, which can often be the thin line between triumph and failure.
So far, we have analyzed only one dimension of using Twitter. There is another side to the story that must also be taken into consideration because it is far too important to ignore. This side is the use of Twitter by competitors. If one lags behind in this department, then no matter how well they are doing, they are putting themselves at a serious risk of being overtaken eventually. This is because Twitter happens to be one of the largest and strongest social media outlets available in this day and age. It is not only vital for survival in the present, but it also holds the key to the future as the demographic trends predict that the number of tech-savvy consumers is only going to multiply. This makes the Internet just as important as the physical market place, if not more.
In the light of all these facts, it would not be wrong to say that without a noticeable online presence on Twitter, there is little else that can be done to thrive and expand on such a large platform.
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