What is Twitter? Twitter Review

Twitter is an American social network and microblogging service website. It is one of the ten most visited websites on the Internet. It is a typical application of microblogging. It allows users to update messages of no more than 140 characters, which are also called "tweets". This service was founded by Jack Dorsey in March 2006 and launched in July of the same year. Twitter is very popular all over the world. According to Dick Costello, the current CEO of Twitter, as of March 2012, Twitter has a total of 140 million active users. Twitter is described as "the text messaging service of the Internet."

About Twitter

Twitter is a popular social network and microblogging service website that allows users to publish their latest updates and ideas in the form of short messages (tweets) on mobile phones, which can be linked to IM instant messaging software. All Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters. In 2006, Obvious, a startup company founded by Evan Williams, a pioneer in blog technology, launched the microblogging service. In the initial stage, this service was only used to send text messages to friends' mobile phones.

In March 2018, cryptocurrency fraud seemed to be unstoppable on Twitter. Some fraudulent accounts were easily certified by Twitter, while legitimate cryptocurrency-related accounts were blocked. Kraken's certified account that provided customer service to users was mistakenly blocked by Twitter.

On July 7, 2018, it was reported that Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June 2018. On December 18, 2018, the 2018 World Brands Top 500 compiled by the World Brand Lab was announced, with Twitter ranking 61st. [3] On October 23, 2019, the 2019 Fortune Future 50 list was announced, with Twitter ranking 13th.

Development History

In 2006, Obvious, a startup founded by blogger pioneer Evan Williams, launched Twitter. In the initial stage, the service was only used to send text messages to friends' mobile phones. At the end of 2006, Obvious upgraded the service, allowing users to receive and send messages through instant messaging services and personalized Twitter websites without having to enter their mobile phone numbers.

Regarding the origin of the name Twitter, Twitter is a kind of bird call. The founder believed that bird calls are short, frequent and fast, which is in line with the connotation of the website, so he chose Twitter as the name of the website.

Twitter, co-founded by Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, has about 175 million registered users (as of November 1, 2010), but 56 million Twitter accounts (about 32% of registered users) do not follow other accounts, and 90 million Twitter accounts have no followers. This data shows that the actual number of Twitter users is far lower than its registered users. As for other websites, Facebook had 600 million monthly active users by the end of 2012, which makes Twitter seem insignificant in comparison. But it is very different from Facebook. As Williams said, Twitter "lowered the barrier."

Twitter is the next logical step in the evolution of existing blogging sites and the initial stage of blogging. Netizens believe that it is more convenient to type 140 characters and send them to the Internet, so Twitter has streamlined information. As Williams said, "It is another step towards the democratization of information. I firmly believe that if people can share information more easily, the future will be better." Williams once again became the spokesperson for the "publishing revolution". Previously, he created the concept of "blog". Twitter was born before 2006, when Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass all worked at Odeo. The board of directors was not optimistic about the company's prospects because the company faced challenges from Apple and other large companies.

The company launched the beta version of Twttr on Williams' birthday. At that time, the company invited a large number of friends to participate in the test, of course, members of large companies were still restricted. Everyone knew that the company would change the world in a completely new way. At the same time, because the true value of Twttr was difficult to describe and Odeo was going from bad to worse, the company's board of directors was under great pressure. The company had to lay off employees. In May 2006, the company laid off four employees, and then two more colleagues were laid off.

Twttr finally came out, but few people understood its value. It cost money to send text messages, so most people were worried that using Twttr would increase their text messaging costs. At this time, those initial users became Twttr evangelists, trying to get their colleagues and friends to use it. At this time, Obvious company appeared, with the purpose of promoting Twttr.

After Twttr changed its name to Twitter, Jack was still just an engineer, and the related service had only been provided for a few months. SMS messages with more than 160 characters would be divided into multiple SMS messages and sent sequentially, which increased the SMS fee. Therefore, the company decided to limit the number of characters sent each time to 140 to ensure that there was space reserved for the user name or punctuation at the beginning of the SMS.

Jack wrote in February 2007 that people could change the world in 140 characters. In 2007, Jack became the CEO of Twitter. By social networking site standards, Twitter was still small, but Twitter could provide direct and important information that other social networking sites could not match.

In October 2008, Dorsey was replaced by Williams as CEO, and Stone and Williams took over the company in 2008. They both have a sense of visionary. For example, Stone said, "We are here to impact people's lives, and we recognize that we have a leadership position here." Williams admitted that he had trouble explaining Twitter to his mother. Stone also worried about the influence of Twitter's information sharing, because media reporters hope to make a difference in the era of free information.

Williams and Stone declined to elaborate on the company's revenue strategy, but both said they would charge corporate users for brand authentication (for example, to assure users that JetBlue's Twitter blog is authentically from JetBlue) and that Twitter might charge users for purchasing their friends' profiles, much like a subscription fee. However, both founders were cautious about charging individual users.

When the two founders were asked about the company's revenue, they both reminded that Twitter is still a young company and that they must first consider the product to be impeccable. Then, they both said in unison that in 1998, no one would ask Google how to make money. Finally, they both said that everyone is worried about asset shrinkage, but that doesn't mean they are the same. Twitter has more than $20 million in venture capital. According to TechCrunch, the term sheet signed by Twitter and a venture capital firm revealed that Twitter's market value is $250 million. Therefore, Twitter still has enough time to make a profit.

Twitter rejected a $500 million acquisition offer from Facebook.

Twitter has open-sourced the distributed real-time computing system Storm, which consists of OpenStack+Hadoop series+Storm.

Starting from the afternoon of June 2, 2009, the official Twitter website could not be directly accessed in mainland China because Twitter did not restrict people from uploading violent, pornographic, malicious slander, rumors, and content that was against the Chinese government and was not allowed by the Chinese government.

On November 29, 2011, according to foreign media reports, Twitter has acquired mobile security software startup Whisper Systems. The company's software can improve the security and privacy of smartphones and other mobile devices.

In January 2012, Twitter announced that it had the ability to implement web content filtering for different countries and regions.

On May 10, 2012, Twitter announced that it had acquired RestEngine, a personalized email marketing service provider. The acquisition of RestEngine will help Twitter send users a summary of missed Twitter information (tweets) via email.

In June 2012, Nclud Design announced that it was acquired by Twitter, and the specific acquisition price was not disclosed. Nclud co-founder Martin Ringlein will become Twitter's new design manager, and he will work hard to improve the design level of Twitter products. Some members of Nclud Design will also move to San Francisco with the firm to join the Twitter team.

On the evening of November 7, 2013, Twitter was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and opened at $45.1, a 73.46% increase from the issue price of $26.

Because Twitter has relatively few users, the service is quite fast.

After the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008, Twitter's first-hand news made it famous.

Although Twitter has been launched for three years, it has been criticized for its lack of a clear business model. Charging business users is one of the ways Twitter often mentions to generate revenue. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said: "We have noticed that more and more companies are starting to use Twitter and attracting many users. We will take measures to increase its value and will charge business users, but not individual users." So far, Twitter has received $20 million in venture capital and rejected Facebook's acquisition.

In mid-October 2011, Twitter announced on its developer blog that all hyperlinks submitted in Twitter messages (tweets) and direct messages must use Twitter's URL abbreviation service t.co. This mandatory unified use of the short domain name t.co will more standardized management and operation, and is also a step forward in the development of overseas microblogs.

Twitter officially launched the t.co service in June 2011. Initially, Twitter would automatically shorten URLs in Twitter messages longer than 19 characters to abbreviated URLs starting with t.co. However, starting Monday, all links, regardless of the length of the hyperlink, will be shortened to abbreviated URLs starting with t.co.

Compared to the major foreign microblog site Twitter, which must use the short domain name t.co as a short link, the microblogs of major domestic websites are more forward-looking in terms of short links. The microblogs of major domestic websites are only allowed to use unified short links. For example, Sina Weibo, the most popular microblog in China, only allows the use of the short domain name t.cn as a short link, which is simple and convenient.

On October 13, 2014, Twitter reached a cooperation with BPCE Group, the second largest bank in France, to allow customers to transfer money through tweets. The cooperation with BPCE Group is in line with Twitter's strategy of independently advancing into the field of online payment and seeking new sources of revenue besides advertising. It hopes to gain a foothold in the field of new mobile payment services or applications.

On September 19, 2016, Twitter announced that it would no longer count photos, videos, polls, quotes, and GIFs toward the 140-character limit.

In October 2016, Twitter began accepting acquisition offers.

On February 10, 2017, Twitter released its latest financial report, showing that its revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016 was US$717 million, a year-on-year increase of 1%, and its net loss was US$167 million. Its revenue in fiscal year 2016 was US$2.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14%, and its net loss was US$457 million. In comparison, Weibo's revenue in the third quarter of 2016 was US$176.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 42%, and its net profit was US$32.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 122%.

On February 18, 2018, Twitter officially announced that it would stop developing Mac apps and remove its apps after 30 days.

On March 27, 2018, Twitter announced that it would ban cryptocurrency advertisements on its platform.

Products and Services

Twitter is an online service that lets you broadcast short messages to your "followers". It also allows you to specify which Twitter users you want to follow so that you can read their posts on a single page.

Twitter was originally designed to be used on mobile phones and to be as easy to use as a computer. All Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters, so each message can be sent as an SMS message. This is part of the charm of Twitter.

Twitter is great for tight-knit groups (although there are also a fair number of mobs on Twitter). If you follow your friends, and they follow other people, you can communicate quickly. Conceptually, Twitter is very similar to DodgeBall, but much easier to use.

Another very important point is that Twitter is completely free.

Languages

Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Indonesian, Danish, English, Basque, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Finnish, Turkish, French, Greek, Ukrainian, Urdu, Persian, Thai, Malay, German, Spanish, Filipino, Hungarian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Catalan, Czech, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean

How to use

Go to Twitter.com and click "Join for free". It is best to register with your real name or common ID, otherwise your friends cannot find you easily. Uploading a photo will also help you. Please note that if you select the "Protect my updates" option, others will not be able to view your information without your authentication.

Once you have a Twitter account, you can tell your friends your username or send them a link to your Twitter profile page. Of course, all users have their own profile pages.

Mobile Phone and IM

If you are not using a computer or browsing the web, the Twitter service can still work for you. Once you have registered, you can connect to Twitter through your mobile phone or IM account. It is very simple to connect your mobile phone and IM program to your Twitter account by going to SETTINGS–>PHONE ANDIM. Please note that you will see a message on your mobile phone or receive a message on IM, and a corresponding message will be left on your Twitter personal page.

You can reply to a Twitter message, which is fun, but if you have a lot of followers, it might bother other people, so you can select "Direct Message" in the notification options. That way, when other users send you a direct message, you will still receive a notification on your phone or IM.

Message sending

You can send Twitter messages from any device you have registered.

⑴ On the Web page, enter a message in the input window at the top of the page.

⑵ On your mobile phone, send an SMS message to 40404. Since your mobile phone caller ID is bound to your Twitter account, the system can automatically recognize that this is a message from you.

⑶ In IM, if you are using AOL, send a message to Twitter IM.

In these cases, all of your followers will see your message on their personal Twitter pages or on their mobile devices.

Follow Link

Once you learn how to send messages in the Twitter system, your friends can follow your updates. Here's how to view other people's messages.

On the web: Add a friend, you must be logged in to your account first. Then go to the friend's Twitter profile and click the "Add" link in the "Action" column. If you want to search for a user's profile, use the search bar on your profile to search by username, email address, or phone number.

Once you click "Add", if the user is set to public access, you will be able to see his profile picture in your contact list. If the user is set to private, the system will send a friendly request, and you will only see his updates after the user allows it.

You can also view your friend's followers by hovering your mouse over their avatar in the right column to see their username. If you click on your friend's followers, you will be taken to their user page and you can add them to your friends list.

On mobile phone or IM: Log in to the mobile phone or IM account, send a follow username command, so that you can receive messages from the user. You can also invite friends by sending a short message add phonenumber to 40404, and you will also become a follower of the user. If the user has not registered yet, he will join after receiving the invitation message.

Managing your friends in a web browser is very convenient, but if you want to manage them on your phone it is also very convenient. Check out Twitter's help page for more commands and details.

Digital Display

There are some numbers on your Twitter page that are very important to describe:

⒈The number above followers indicates how many people are following me (follow5).

⒉The number above following indicates how many people you are following.

⒊The number after Direct Messages indicates how many direct messages you have received from friends. Click the link to view the details of these messages.

⒋The number in front of Favorites indicates how many tweets you have favorited. Click the link to see each favorite tweet. We can see that there is a "star" icon after each tweet. When you click the star, it means that this message is your favorite.

⒌The number above Listed indicates how many messages you have sent.

⒍The more followers (follow me-follow5) you have, the more attention you will get.

The new version of Twitter interface is slightly different from the old version:

⒈The number after followers indicates how many people are following me.

⒉The number after following indicates how many people you follow.

⒊The number after Your Tweets indicates how many tweets you have sent.

⒋The message is moved to the top of the page, which is Messages.

Messaging

You can use the Direct command to send messages directly to other users. Enter the d username message command. On your personal page, click Direct Messages. The message input box above will have the function of sending messages directly to designated friends. You can select one of the users and send the message directly.

Closing Method

Twitter messages may annoy you. If you want to turn it off, you can send an "off", "Sleep" or "Stop" command. If you want to restore it, you can send "on", "Wake" or "start" command.

Photo Filters

On December 11, 2012, Twitter officially launched the photo filter feature. There is no doubt that this move by Twitter will further intensify the competition between itself and Facebook.

The feature launched by Twitter is similar to the photo filter feature of Instagram, a photo-sharing app that has been acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. It is believed that although the launch of this feature by Twitter will not improve the user experience of existing users, it will greatly increase the competition between Twitter and Facebook.

Coincidentally, Twitter's new feature was officially launched just a few days after Instagram announced that it would no longer allow Twitter to display Instagram photos. Not long ago, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said, "Banning Twitter from directly displaying Instagram photos is to attract more visitors to Instagram's own website."

In addition, Systrom also said, "I have no information to share about the company's development plans or profit model in the next few years." But analysts believe that Instagram may become Facebook's most important source of advertising revenue in the future. After all, Facebook certainly hopes to see some returns from its $1 billion investment.

Twitter said its filters were developed by Aviary, a New York-based photo editing software developer that also provides technical support for many photo-sharing sites including Flickr. Since 2012, photo-sharing has become increasingly popular among social network users, and the built-in filters of software such as Instagram allow users to edit and beautify their photos.

Fabric Toolkit

On October 23, 2014, the company released the Fabric toolkit at Flight, its first mobile developer conference, which can help third-party developers better design mobile applications. The company's CEO Dick Costello and other executives also attended the conference that day.

Timeline

In the early morning of November 13, 2014, Twitter held its first analyst day conference in San Francisco. CEO Dick Costolo announced that it would launch an "instant timeline" product to attract new users.

Retweet with comment

In April 2015, Twitter finally launched the official version of the quote function. If users want to quote others' tweets, they must use TweetDeck and other mobile software to achieve it. In addition, the unofficial quote function also means that there is very little space for users to comment. When users quote a tweet, they can only enter 116 English characters.

Hide Replies

In June 2019, Twitter will roll out a feature called hide replies, allowing users to hide replies they believe do not contribute to the conversation, and will also make other improvements to the reporting and logging process.

app

Twitter itself does not provide particularly complex functions, and almost all loyal users have their favorite third-party applications. Here is a brief introduction to some commonly used third-party applications:

Desktop

1. Official Widget

The official widgets are mainly available in Flash version and HTML (application under standard universal markup language). They are simple but relatively stable, suitable for being placed in the blog sidebar or other profile pages.

2. Twhirl

Twhirl is the most popular, stable and efficient Twitter client. Domestic Weibo and follow5 can also use this client. Because it uses Adobe AIR technology and is supported by a commercial company (seesmic has raised $12 million). Yes, this technology can use rich APIs such as FlashPlayer, DHTML and Native File System across platforms. It is easy to use and powerful. More importantly, its installation uses the installation mechanism embedded in FlashPlayer by Adobe, which is very smooth: enter the page above and click "Install now" on the right to install it.

3. Spaz

Spaz is still much cruder than Twhirl, but it is an open source AIR program with great potential.

PS: Another cute thing about Spaz is that there are many small music cues.

4. Digsby

Although it has advanced concepts and strong cross-platform capabilities, Digsby is a "freak" of SNS+EMail+IM. I personally think that although the website poster is well done, the details need to be improved, and the integration of so many services into one is naturally a long way to go: users originally hope to improve efficiency, but Digsby is not as convenient as using SNS, EMail and IM separately. If you want to use it for a long time, it is best to observe for a while before downloading.

mobile device

1. Hexin Tuike

Note: Hexin Tuike no longer supports updating Twitter.

Hexin Tuike is the first mobile application in China that supports the transmission of Twitter information, and is also the best application for sending and receiving Twitter information from mobile phones. Hexin Tuike uses Push technology to push Twitter updates to mobile phones instantly, and can also reply or retweet (RT) directly from the mobile phone. The most important thing is that this application is transmitted through the GPRS channel, not the SMS channel, so there is no SMS fee, only GPRS traffic fee.

With this application, expensive overseas text message charges will no longer hinder the development of Twitter in China. You can use Twitter anytime, anywhere and cost-effectively. I believe Twitter will soon become popular in China.

(1) Application features: Twitter updates are pushed directly to your mobile phone. You don’t need to log in to the Twitter website. You can send and receive messages in real time using your mobile phone, truly experiencing the charm of Twitter in its original form.

(2) Terminal support: In 2012, Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems will be supported, but clients supporting thousands of Java platforms will be released.

(3) Related fees: The Hexin Twitter service is free. Receiving Twitter updates from a mobile phone is free; sending messages from a mobile phone requires GPRS traffic fees. Based on 1KB=1024 bytes, 1K of traffic can send more than 500 words.

(4) How to use: Install the mobile client. Log in to the Hexin official website and bind directly or write a Hexin from your mobile phone: the recipient is Twitter, and the content is "login name + space + password". After sending, you will receive a successful binding message; then you can use Twitter on your mobile phone.

2. Twitter mobile version or mobile browser

The SMS synchronization method is not advisable in China, because Twitter's servers are in the United States, and the monopoly of domestic operators has led to extremely high mobile phone charges, especially high cross-border SMS charges. In addition to the Hexin Pusher application, mobile phones can also connect to the Internet through WiFi or GPRS monthly packages, and log in to the Twitter website through Opera or other browsers.

3. snaptu mobile software

No proxy software is needed, it can be installed and used on ordinary Java phones and smart phones, and supports browsing pictures. RT themes can have the same effect as domestic Sina. It also supports accessing Facebook without a proxy, subscribing to news, weather, etc.

4. Nimbuzz mobile app

It is also a software that can update Twitter without a proxy server. The interface is more friendly than snaptu, and the functions are equivalent. It also supports gtalk, msn, yahoo, icq and other chat IMs. If you can't access Facebook with this software in China, you can choose to use it as needed.

5. gravity mobile software

Supports Nokia smartphones, commonly known as Shenruan. Supports the creation of multiple accounts to update Twitter at the same time, and can also access Facebook, Sina Weibo, Google Reading, etc.

Here are some good ways to log in.

1. For ordinary mobile phones, use the official m. twitter .com, which is lightweight and convenient. If you don't have a modern browser such as Opera or Safari, you can still use it.

2. For iPhone and iPod Touch, it is recommended to use Hahlo to update and synchronize. Simply open hahlo.com using Safari on your iPod/iPhone.

3. If you are a heavy Twitter user, you can also consider installing a Terrific (Apple Store link) or Twinkle client on your iPod or iPhone. Since it is free, I personally recommend getting it directly through iTunes (make sure you have iTunes installed).

Friendly reminder: If you don't have an iTunes account, it's best to get a Redeem code first, become a fan of this Page on Facebook, and then click this link. You can search for details. I recommend you use Terrific. Twinkle is too commercialized and is far inferior to the standalone installer developed by Jailbreak+Installer at the time.

Statistics Applications

⒈does follow

Determine whether someone follows someone else. After clicking, just enter the account names of the two people you want to query. For example, we can check whether Evans Williams, the founder of Twitter, follows Obama's Twitter account. Enter ev, BarackObama and press Enter to see:

However, I insist that following should be based on a principle of freedom and necessity: don’t force anyone to follow you, and don’t follow too many people. I believe that among my more than 700 followers, there must be some who don’t need to follow me:)

⒉TweetStats

This tool can help you analyze your own Twitter content, such as who you often communicate with, what time period you usually speak, etc. It is very interesting; just enter your username (you can also peek at other people's, hehe)

⒊Twitterholic

Twitterholic can not only calculate some basic data about you, but also compare these data with other Twitter users to get a ranking. This is also the most interesting point among many statistical applications.

The overall statistics show that Obama ranks first in both Follow and Friends. He has 158,015 friends, of which 152,941 follow him.

Here's a side note: As far as I know, Obama's Twitter account is maintained by a dedicated person, and he won't actively follow anyone. Once someone follows him, he will follow back. It seems that more than 5,000 people deceived Obama into following them and then secretly abandoned him, haha...

4. Twitter Rank

Okay, let me introduce the idea of ​​TwitterRank for the last time. I remember about a month ago, I and a few fools posted a message on Twitter saying "My TwitterRank is xxx". Then many classmates went to try it out. As a result, rumors spread that TwitterRank was a phishing website. Then I changed my password immediately and notified my friends to change their passwords as well. That's the end of the matter.

When I went to the official TwitterRank website in 2010, I found that the author clearly stated his identity: Ryo Chijiiwa (formerly a technical director at Yahoo). The truth is not that terrible. At least, ZDNet and Mashable have given positive reviews. And this Ryo also made a "Top50" list. According to my personal observation, these people have the characteristics of extremely high follower-to-following ratio and a large number of updates; they are also a group of students who update actively.

But to be honest, Twitter is a very personal thing. If it is a web page or media, it should be measured by Page Rank. Even if Twitter Rank is a very scientific calculation, it does not have much real value. Do you watch the news on Twitter? I don't... I'm afraid only fans of Korean stars will watch the news on a news source 24 hours a day...

5. Tweetwasters

This statistics system can tell you how much time you waste on Twitter :) My result is: a total of 1946 updates. If each update takes 30 seconds (a very conservative estimate), then I have "wasted" 16 hours on Twitter. It seems that I am really healthy :)

⒍Twitter Grader

This is an early Twitter statistics tool. Unfortunately, the algorithm seems to need to be updated. My Grade is 99.4, while there are many Twitters with a perfect score (100).

⒎monitter

A cool monitor that allows you to select three keywords to monitor. It uses AJAX technology and only has one page. You can just enter the keywords, which is very simple.

Note that there are a series of small tools above, such as limiting the geographical scope, changing the color scheme, etc., which are all interesting and can be tried.

Marketing Application Customer Service

When Jonathan was waiting to board his flight at New York International Airport, he wrote some questions on Twitter. Ten seconds after the blog was sent, he actually received an email from JetBlue, responding to his questions. It turned out that JetBlue used scanning tools to track Twitter users in real time to find information to solve users' problems, such as flight delays or flight cancellations.

Whether you are buying a plane ticket, a computer or consulting a hosting problem, you don’t need to call the brand’s online customer service staff, you can find them directly on Twitter. At the same time, Twitter can provide companies with user tracking services, shortening the company’s response time to customer needs. The Interests principle mentioned in the 4I principle of network integrated marketing emphasizes that when marketing to the target user group, you should always pay attention to whether the marketing activities provide real benefits to customers, which is obviously the unspoken rule for the success of Twitter customer service.

Information dissemination

Twitter has developed a "brand channel" where companies can build brand pages and form multiple brand groups on Twitter, so that fans of the same brand can gather together. Companies can send users various new product and promotion information through the platform. Twitter's immediacy and sharing feature allow a message to quickly spread to groups and teams with the same interests.

Even users interact with each other and may forward information to other friends. Many American companies have already adopted this approach. (Case source: Network Integrated Marketing Weaponry) It is reported that Dell started using the Twitter enterprise platform in March 2007, and by 2013, Dell's official website had 65 Twitter groups. Dell has earned about $1 million in sales revenue from Twitter.

This method increases the company's brand's chances of directly contacting consumers, which is conducive to maintaining brand awareness and customer loyalty. If the company itself has a blog, regular publications or news releases as a basis, it is very effective. But if there is no fresh information content source to support it, it is difficult to attract followers. Even boring and infrequently updated Twitter accounts are worse than having no Twitter account. NBC's official Twitter account is called Today Show, but it is just some press releases of no more than 140 words released by public relations staff, and the content is extremely boring. It is not attractive for users to join this community and participate in the conversation.

CRM Conversations

In the US election, both Hillary and Obama set up personal homepages on Twitter, but Obama eventually gained 150,000 followers, while Hillary only had more than 6,000. A careful analysis found that although they both updated messages frequently, the difference was that Hillary's number of active follow-ups (following) was 0, while Obama's following was as high as 150,000! This shows that Obama's marketing team was tracking the updates of more than 100,000 people in real time. When someone supported Obama, the team would provide information feedback to users through Twitter, so that supporters felt that Obama was talking to me! (Case study from "Network Integrated Marketing Weapon List") Hillary's Twitter only served as a one-way information release platform, not a communication tool, and she did not follow those who followed her.

The Interaction principle in the 4I principle of network integrated marketing emphasizes that there needs to be an interactive movement between the marketing subject and the marketing object, and establishing a dialogue with your customers is the golden rule of Twitter marketing. The more influential the Twitter is, the higher the proportion of communication with others in its content. Only by establishing a long-term interactive relationship through communication can it be converted into market returns.

Hard advertising form

Due to its popularity, Twitter receives calls from major companies every day, asking them to buy media advertising on Twitter. However, Twitter has always been reluctant to promote naked hard advertising that would disrupt the user's browsing experience. More interestingly, Twitter allows individual users to earn money by inserting ads on their personal pages. Users can invite advertisers to buy advertising space on their personal pages, and both parties negotiate the time of placement and the fee.

Twitter only charges 5% as a service fee. In order to ensure the interests of advertisers, every hour during the advertisement broadcast, users can obtain the amount in the virtual account set by the Twitter advertising department in proportion. After the advertisement is completed, the money can be transferred to the user's real account. If the user clears the advertisement before the advertisement expires, the only part of the fee can be obtained. This open mind, willingness to give most of the marketing expenses to users, can indeed make users cheer and stimulate users' enthusiasm for participation. At the same time, advertising in a licensed and independent manner will have better marketing effects.

Public Opinion Monitoring

Internet marketing expert Liu Dongming believes that the arrival of social media has transformed communication from "chapel-style" to "market-style". Every grassroots user has his own "mouth", and Twitter is naturally an important base for "brand public opinion". More and more companies are tracking their brand evaluations on Twitter and monitoring public opinion. These real voices of Twitter can help companies quickly touch consumers' psychology, their feelings about products, and the latest demands, and obtain market dynamics and even harbingers of public relations crisis.

Comcast, Dell, General Motors, H&R Block, Kodak are regular customers who visit Twitter. Their focus on Twitter reflects the power of new social media in "consumer public discussion of brands." Lan Baker, president of Get Satisfaction, said: The real voice for brands has been transferred to consumers, which is due to technology.

Interactive Activities

During the US election, Twitter launched a dedicated campaign channel to cover the debate between Obama and McCain. Unlike the media concept of 1.0, users can enter their views on the debate in the text box "What do you think?" below the page. So how do you import this interactive method into the field of commercial marketing? The combination of the wine industry and "experience marketing" has made a new attempt: live online wine tasting.

Foreign wine companies held Twitter TasteLive on Twitter, and five Hugo wines were provided to wine lovers who use Twitter. The organizer then determined a time to interact with wine lovers on Twitter, and used live videos to assist the experience, enhancing the intuitiveness of the event.

(Case source: "Internet Integrated Marketing Weapons") Use Twitter to move the tasting scene online. As long as Twitter users send their ideas to subscribers and friends in text from websites, text messages, etc., both parties can provide timely feedback. Compared with traditional offline experience marketing, the Twitter experience method can enable wine enthusiasts to break through the limit on the number of people in the tasting time and region, and it is possible to tasting nationwide and even globally; more importantly, wine lovers from different regions communicate in real time and communicate in depth. The brand’s imprint will "ferment" in the interaction between experience and relationships.

Gone are the top-down majestic dissemination of mainstream media. Every grassroots has the right to freely make their true voice. Although the voice of a grassroots is very weak, thousands of people gather together to form a huge "long tail of social media", which can even influence and influence mainstream media. In the face of Twitter social media, an inconspicuous small news may be infinitely amplified. For enterprises, how to warn before a crisis and how to deal with public relations after a crisis are all topics worth studying.

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In 2006, the company Obvious, founder of blog technology pioneer Evan W illiam s, launched the Twitter service, a typical application of microblogs.

Twitter allows you to post short messages to friends or “followers”, and it also allows you to specify users you want to follow so you can read the information they posted on a page.

Open API

Open API (OpenAPI) is a common application under the SaaS (Software as a Service) model. Website service providers encapsulate their website services into a series of APIs (Application Programming Interface) and open them for use by third-party developers. This behavior is called the open website API, and the open API is called OpenAPI (Open API).

After the website provides an open platform API, it can attract some third-party developers to develop commercial applications on the platform. Platform providers can obtain more traffic and market share. Third-party developers can start businesses easily and quickly without huge investment in hardware and technology, thereby achieving a win-win goal. Open API is a way for the development and sharing of large platforms, allowing developers to develop a valuable application with less cost and more opportunities for success. Since 2010, OpenAPI, as the foundation of the development of Internet online services, has become an inevitable choice for more and more Internet companies to develop services.

Celebrity Users

There are many celebrities on Twitter, such as US President Obama, Chairman and CEO of Innovation Works Kai-Fu Lee, etc. Obama has a Twitter account with more than 2.6 million followers. Obviously, he should not have time to update it himself. Most of it should be his team that uses Twitter to promote it for the sake of elections. In 2012, he became the president of the United States. So has he ever used tools similar to Twitter?

In a Q&A session in a conversation with Chinese youth in Shanghai, Obama said this when answering a question about using Twitter in China: I have never used Twitter, but I am an advocate of new technologies and do not support online censorship.

President Obama attaches great importance to the Internet. He himself is a beneficiary of the Internet and social media (such as Twitter) in the general election. His campaign team created a social network to enhance Obama's influence on the Internet, making full use of social new media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, fully shaped the image of Obama's Web 2.0 generation, and attracted a lot of votes. Obama, who is good at learning, has clearly established a fresh, young, and enterprising candidate image for himself through his online marketing. It has brought voters closer to himself, and is more affinity and competitiveness.

Other applications

⒈TwitterMap: Users can search for geographical locations based on Twitter’s Username, and display the user’s public Twitter messages and geographical location related information.

⒉ TwitterBar: TwitterBar is a FireFox plug-in that can save the website address that users are currently browsing into their Twitter account. If other users add you as friends, they can also see the relevant information about the website you are currently visiting.

⒊Twittervision: This gadget is an online application launched by TwitterMap, a company introduced earlier, since 2012. It can display the content of users updating Twitter on Google Map in real time.

⒋Twitter tools: Twitter tools is a wordpress plug-in produced by senior blog Alex King. Users can send and display their Twitter messages on their own WP platform, etc.; if you are the ultimate Twitter fan and are also a WP user, this plug-in is definitely worth collecting and using.

⒌Twitteroo: It is a desktop software installed under Windows, allowing users to send messages to their accounts without logging into Twitter.

⒍Twitter Badges: Twitter Badges is an official gadget that users can put their moods in their blogs.

Product logo

Twitter's blue bird icon is household name, and the little guy is named Larry Bird. In August 2011, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone confirmed in a conversation with Boston Celtics' interactive media director Peter Stringer that the bird's name was named after former NBA Boston Celtics star Larry Bird. In 2012, Twitter released a new logo, a simplified version of the blue bird, no longer like the previous image of a chick, reflecting maturity, confidence and pride. The bird is designed only from overlapping circles, symbolizing that netizens' interests and ideas are connected through the Internet.

Company Honors

On December 18, 2018, the "2018 World Brands Top 500" compiled by the World Brand Lab was announced, and Twitter ranked 61st.

In July 2019, the list of the top 30 Internet listings in the world was released, and Twitter ranked 21st.

On October 23, 2019, the 2019 Fortune's Top 50 list was announced, and Twitter ranked 13th.

Company Development

Registered User

In the early morning of July 31, 2012, Paris analysis company Semiocast released a report saying that the number of registered users of Twitter has exceeded 500 million, which is another milestone for Twitter.

The report shows that as of July 1, 2012, the number of registered Twitter users was 517 million, which is about half of the total number of Facebook users. It is the second largest social networking website, of which 141.8 million are American users. Most of Twitter users are from outside the United States, and so is Twitter messages.

The Semiocast report shows that by the number of Twitter messages posted, the top three cities are the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Tokyo and London.

Acquisition business

Cabana

In October 2012, Twitter acquired Cabana, a US mobile application development tool manufacturer, and Twitter said it would facilitate third-party developers to develop products for Twitter.

TechCrunch said that the acquisition of Cabana will enhance Twitter's application software development capabilities, which can not only develop official applications, but also help third-party developers around Twitter.

In April 2012, the acquired company launched a product called Fan Page Mobilizer, which can help companies communicate with Facebook fans on mobile terminals. This product will help corporate users integrate on two major social networking sites: Facebook and Twitter.

Lucky Sort

On May 14, 2013, Twitter announced the acquisition of big data startup Lucky Sort. Twitter hopes Lucky Sort will help it better understand how to generate revenue through billions of messages posted by users every year. Lucky Sort CEO Noah Pepper posted a blog post saying the company's "image is to make large documents easier to analyze and more vivid by developing user-friendly text analysis tools."

Twitter has acquired several companies to fill the company's lack of products, including We Are Hunted, which developed Twitter Music app, social TV analytics startup Bluefin Labs, and downtime reporting service Crashlytics.

Gnip

On April 16, 2014, Twitter announced that it had acquired Gnip, a company that specializes in collecting, organizing and sharing social data, but did not disclose the specific terms of the deal.

Twitter said the acquisition of Gnip will help the company provide a better and more comprehensive data collection for developers and enterprise customers. More importantly, it may also use that data to enhance its appeal to brand merchants and enterprise customers and find more sources of revenue for the company. Investors have always hoped that Twitter will find more sources of revenue. The acquisition of Gnip will help appease investors.

CardSpring

In July 2014, Twitter announced that it would acquire a company called CardSpring, which plans to complete the acquisition in the fall of 2014. CardSpring will help retailers provide consumers with coupons that are automatically linked to their credit cards and receive discounts directly when shopping in physical stores. The acquisition will help Twitter expand such services to facilitate consumers.

ZipDial

On the evening of January 20, 2015, Twitter announced on Tuesday that it would acquire Indian mobile phone marketing startup ZipDial. Twitter did not disclose the price of the deal, but it is expected to be between $30 million and $40 million.

Periscope

Twitter acquired Periscope in January 2015. The speculation about the amount involved in the transaction ranged from 50 million to 100 million US dollars when Twitter acquired Periscope.

Niche

Twitter acquired Niche in January 2015, and the price of Niche was around $30 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Road to listing

Twitter was listed on November 7, 2013 and has set the IPO (initial public offering) issue price at US$26, higher than the previous price range. [30] It opened at US$45.1, up 73.46% from the issuance price of US$26. On the first day of listing, Twitter closed at US$44.90, up 72.96% from the issue price, with a market value of US$24.5 billion.

Release Records

On August 16, 2013, Twitter set a new record of 143,199 messages per second, facilitated by the annual screening of the Japanese cartoon Castle in the Sky.

Test video advertising

On March 23, 2015, Twitter tried to play video ads automatically, and Facebook and Instagram opened up in 2013 and 2014 respectively. As of the end of 2014, if the automatic short videos with more than 3 seconds were counted, Facebook's video views reached 3 billion, a double increase in half a year.

Event Report

Attacked

On August 6, 2009, Twitter was attacked by a "denial of service" attack. Starting around 9 a.m. ET, the Twitter website has about two hours of unavailability to log in.

Completed revision

Twitter announced on February 16, 2012 that the revision work that began in December 2011 has been completed, and the newly added functions after the revision have been opened to all users.

In the new version of Twitter, users can view the number of followers, the reposted Twitter information they publish, and view the results of Twitter information arranged according to their interests or geographical location, etc. In addition, the new version of Twitter also allows all users to view Twitter brand pages.

Reorganize music services

On October 20, 2013, the American technology blog AllThingsD said that Twitter is considering abandoning the Twitter #Music app and reorganizing the music team, which has only been launched for 6 months.

Türkiye lifts ban

On April 4, 2014, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office officials said the ban had been lifted after the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that the country's telecommunications authority TIB's act of banning Twitter was violated by freedom of speech.

As the eavesdropping recordings of senior Turkish officials were exposed on Twitter, the country began banning Twitter from the preparatory stage of the election on March 21, 2014. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan even said he would "errone" Twitter.

High-level changes

On October 31, 2014, Twitter has appointed Kevin Weil as Product Leader, which will expand its quota and redirect Daniel Graf to another position.

Live Spring Festival Gala

In February 2015, CCTV Spring Festival Gala was broadcast live on overseas websites such as Twitter for the first time. In addition, CCTV also produced a collection of Spring Festival Galas in previous years and promoted it to overseas markets. It can be seen on websites such as Twitter, so that more overseas Chinese and foreigners who love Chinese culture and are eager to understand Chinese culture have the opportunity to see the Spring Festival Gala.

The US President opens an account

In May 2015, US President Obama officially opened his personal Twitter account.

It is planned to cancel the 140-word limit

On January 6, 2016, Beijing time, the most beloved feature of Twitter is about to change: the company plans to expand the word limit from the existing 140 characters to 10,000 characters, and the news is expected to be announced at the end of March 2016.

Suspend your account

On July 7, 2018, Twitter suspended more than 7,000 accounts in May and June 2018. [2] On the morning of July 13, social media data company Keyhole said that in order to increase service credibility, a policy change announced by Twitter on Thursday will result in an average of 2% of its followers by 100 of the most popular big Vs losing 2%.

Corporate Cooperation

On September 23, 2019, Twitter and Alibaba, Facebook and Uber jointly established the Presto Foundation for large-scale distributed data processing.

Ban political advertising

On October 30, 2019, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that political advertising will be banned on its platform starting next month.