# K
FEATURE
www.indexmagazine.co.uk FROM WORLD LEADERS... .
Every single day 500
million tweets are sent out
J A C
all aspects of our social and business lives. Its emergence in the wake of Facebook amid a swathe of digital competitors meant it had a tough battle in aspiring to any meaningful longevity. Initially, its appeal appeared to centre
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around users being able to follow the fortunes of their favourite celebrities, public fi gures and bands as they revealed aspects of their lives in a stream of snappy 140 characters or less. If you were fortunate, a thought-
provoking Tweet might just tease out a response from those in lofty places whom were on your follow list. But as with many applications, it’s evolved signifi cantly into far more than offering a window on the world
hen Twitter burst on to the scene a decade ago, few could have predicted the impact it would have across
of the powerful and famous. One of its greatest strengths has been to help enable small and medium-sized businesses access global markets they could only previously have dreamt of. Then there’s the matter of Twitter’s
immediacy, making it a great medium for rapid comment on breaking news on everything from the Arab Spring democracy uprising in the Middle East, terrorist attacks in Paris, through to live coverage of major sporting events such as the Olympic Games or Leicester City’s recent Premier League victory, which triggered an enormous 5.5 million tweets across the globe. It has also helped deliver a raft of stunning images, not least of which have been British Space astronaut Tim Peake’s ongoing earth photos from his landmark mission at the International Space Station. So with such factors behind it, Twitter
remains a powerful force, despite concerns that its global total of just over 310 million users has not shown signs of increasing over the past few months. While it appears in strong fi nancial health, it shed more than 300 jobs from its global staff base of 3,800 as part of ongoing restructuring last year. This led to concerns
from some observers that the public’s interest in Twitter may be on the wane – prompting its co-founder Jack Dorsey to make some attention-grabbing steps in expanding its features. Perhaps the most
noticeable change this year has been the introduction of a live news feed in its bid to keep up with other social media outlets. There has also been talk of potentially removing its 140-character
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limit that had been its unique selling point – which has seen an apparent compromise in now having the ability to send longer private messages.
But will such moves make a difference to users and how they perceive Twitter? Alison Parmar, a Kent-based
development manager for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), believed it had played a signifi cant role in how companies were trading and interacting with customers. “As an organisation, we believe Twitter is essential not only for recruiting new members, but also for engaging with those we have, joining in local conversations and quickly sharing our news and updates with the lively Kent business community,” Alison explained, stressing that it was a case of companies having to persevere with engaging with Twitter to gain the most from it, adding: “Every single day 500 million tweets are sent out and a large percentage of them are from businesses seeking to interact with existing clients and grab new ones. “So, if your business has so far avoided
Twitter the evidence shows you are taking a real gamble because most of your competitors are now active on social media. And they are all chasing your customers. “Getting involved in Twitter can seem quite daunting, particularly for more- established businesses used to face-to-face connections. But when you consider 83% of the world’s political leaders have their own Twitter accounts now, and there’s not a single major business that doesn’t take its social media seriously, it is clear this is one phenomenon that isn’t going away,” enthused the senior FSB development manager.
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©Twitter/ astro_timpeake
© Jonathan Machlin
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