Social Media and Twitter - Essay Example

Social Media and Twitter Name: Institute: Social Media and Twitter Introduction Social Media is evidently the future communication tool, a limitless collection of internet based platforms and tools that heighten and improve the sharing of information (Walker, 2013). Generally, this novel type of media increasingly facilitates the transfer of information, video, photos, audio, and text in the midst of internet users. Social media according to Walker (2013) vary from industrial or conventional media in scores of ways, which includes stability, closeness, usability, regularity, reach, and quality. Statistics indicate that internet users spend more time on social media sites as compared to any other form of online site. In this regard the essay seeks to provide a critical analysis about social media as well as Twitter. Social Media Social media is defined by Walker (2013) as the collective channels for online communications committed to society-based input, collaboration, content-sharing and interaction. Websites as well as applications devoted to social networking, Wikis, micro-blogging, social curation, social bookmarking, and forums are amongst the diverse forms of social media. A number of well-known examples of social media comprise: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and YouTube. In this case, Facebook is a well-liked free website for social networking that permits users who have registered to make profiles, upload video as well as photos, and be in contact with family and friends. Twitter on the other hand, is a free micro-blogging service that permits members who have registered to convey short texts acknowledged as tweets. LinkedIn is another vital site for social networking intended purposely for the business individuals they trust and recognize professionally (Gray, 2011). Undoubtedly, social media is turning out to be an essential component of life online as social applications as well as websites multiply. Gray (2011) believes that the phrase social media is probable to lose significance as the social facet of the Web turns out to be progressively taken for granted (Fry, 2014).  The majority social media platforms, like Facebook Twitter, provide score of ways to examine trends as well as carry out market research (Gray, 2011). By just exploring the most recent popular terms as well as posts, one can get insight into up-and-coming trends and observe what consumers are discussing in real-time. One instance of this research is performing hashtag searches on Twitter, given that by carrying out some searches with hashtags associated with the organisation brand or product, one can get immediate notifications when competitors, client, or customers make use of key terms. Social media according to Walker (2013) is rising in fame with both consumers as well as businesses existing across almost all market demographics. Nielson (2011) report on the social media state maintains that roughly 80% of persons with access to Internet use social media. Therefore, this enables a person or organization to carry out research with an audience that is extremely enormous as compared to what any other media or marketing source can offer. The simple access as well as casual nature of social media as well assists to promote user participation, engagement, and interaction. This according to Fry (2014) enhances the likelihoods of getting valuable, precise and truthful information from the efforts. Crawling social media sites for data mining or information extraction is a somewhat novel idea, generally owing to the fact that nearly all of the social media sites have emerged in the last ten years or so. However, it is evenly imperative to seize this ever-growing User-Generated-Content (UGC) as this is the information that organizations need; for example, feedback, competitor analysis, product/service reviews, complaints, brand analysis, brand monitoring and the like. Twitter About Twitter Twitter is defined by Gunelius (2013) as an online micro-blogging and social networking service that permits registered users to broadcast and read short text messages (140 characters) acknowledged as tweets. Members who have registered can post and read tweets, but users have not registered can just read tweets. Twitter can be accessed through the website interface, mobile device application, and SMS, and importantly users utilize Twitter to follow trends and news as well as to interact with friends, family, and colleagues (Gunelius, 2013). The Rise of Twitter as a Communication Tool Some years ago Twitter appeared like a passing air; it was uncomplicated, attractive platform for social networking, and great for sharing inconsequential information of day after day life or funny jokes, but it appeared improbable that a service rooted in 140 character tweets would by any means end up as a worldwide phenomenon. However, that is precisely what ensued. Towards the end of 2013, the Pew Research Centre reported that over 18 percent of internet users in America use Twitter. What’s more, their research demonstrates that to some extent more men use twitter as compared to Women, and that, needless to say, younger people below 30 are Tweeting roughly twice as often as those above thirty years. Furthermore, Twitter is widely utilised by famous celebrities, athletes, politicians, and media houses than any other social media; thus, making it the most utilised platform for social networking. Data from Twitter (Benefits & Challenges) Social media according to Finley (2014) has turn out to be a key platform for data sharing. Owing to its honesty in data sharing, Twitter is a key case in point of social media wherein specialists can extract fascinating patterns and develop real world applications and researchers can confirm their hypotheses. Evidently, companies endure hardship identifying the correct data and establishing how to best make use of it. Developing data-associated business cases time and again denotes thinking beyond the box and in search of revenue paradigms that are extremely distinct from the conventional business. Finley (2014) posit that companies are having hard time to uncover the correct talent competent of both working with novel technologies as well as of interpreting the data from twitter to unearth consequential insights for the business. Without doubt, Twitter data connectivity as well as access can be difficult since most points of data are not still to be connected, and companies time and again lack the correct platforms to gather and manage the data from twitter (Finley, 2014). Data Collection from Twitter The method that researchers as well as other individuals who desire to obtain enormous Twitter datasets that are publically accessible is by means of their Application Programming Interface (API) (Hanna, 2012). According to Hanna (2012) scores of services that desire to set up a developer community around their product normally release one API; for instance, Facebook has an Application Programming Interface that is to some extent preventive, while Klout API allows the users to automatically search for Klout scores as well as all their distinct aspects (Hanna, 2012). In this case, the Twitter API has two distinct types:  Streaming and REST. The REST API is valuable for obtaining data of things such as followers’ lists and those who follow a certain member, and is what the majority of researchers depend on. On the other hand, streaming API functions by requesting for a certain type of data, which is filtered by a random sample, keyword, or geographic area and afterwards keeping the connection open provided that there are no connection slip-ups (Hanna, 2012). The Streaming API considers both hashtags and keyword equally so it uses the same method to track the. In order to track hashtags utilising the Streaming API one must specify the keyword(s) and hashtag(s) he/she is interested in as 'track' parameter values of the filter technique. Streaming API permits for enormous quantities of keywords or hashtags to be specified as well as tracked, extracting geo-tagged tweets from a particular location, or having the user public statuses set returned. However, this needs one to set up a long-standing HTTP connection as well as keep that connection. Conclusion In conclusion it has been argued that Social Media has significance not just for normal internet users, but as well for business community. It has been observed that social media platforms, in particular twitter have generated online communities wherein persons can share their own information with other members. What’s more, Social media together with Twitter can be used as research hub, to carry out brand, consumer, and competitor analysis. References Finley, K. (2014, June 2). Twitter Opens Its Enormous Archives to Data-Hungry Academics. Retrieved from WIRED: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/twitter-promises-share-secrets-academia/ Fry, A. (2014, February 21). Study shows concern over use of social media data in research . Retrieved from The Conversation: http://theconversation.com/study-shows-concern-over-use-of-social-media-data-in-research-23485 Gray, C. (2011, February 7). Social media: A guide for researchers. Retrieved from Research Information Network: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers Gunelius, S. (2013, June 9). What is Twitter? Twitter Basics. Retrieved from About.com: http://weblogs.about.com/od/marketingablog/qt/WhatIsTwitter.htm Hanna, A. (2012, October 16). Collecting real-time Twitter data with the Streaming API. Retrieved from Badhessian: http://badhessian.org/2012/10/collecting-real-time-twitter-data-with-the-streaming-api/ Walker, L. (2013, August 9). Social Media Definition: What Are Social Media? Retrieved from About.com: http://personalweb.about.com/od/socialmedia101/a/Social-Media-Definition.htm Read More