Twitter Post

Twitter is becoming the new and most popular social media and microblogging tool on the Internet. Twitter can be used in many different ways. The obvious one being that Twitter is used for socializing. Users type statuses called tweets on their profile to update followers on their daily lives. It's almost similar to Facebook, but much simpler. Users can also post pictures, whether on a personal or professional level. Another way that Twitter is used is for business purposes. Many businesses and companies are starting to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, as it paves another way for businesses to become more popular and generate more customers. In my opinion, Twitter seems like an easy way for businesses to start out and utilize the features without it becoming a complicated matter. Businesses use Twitter to update customers on upcoming events, receive feedback and gain interaction with customers, and post sales and coupons.

Twitter is also used to get people closer to celebrities. It may seem far fetched, but Twitter is a great way to reach out to celebrities and maybe even get a response back from them. Since Twitter is fairly simple with their messaging system, celebrities are more apt to receive tweets from their fans and respond to them. It's a nice way to kind of stay in touch with a celebrity, even though you're not that close to them.

Journalism has also started to incorporate Twitter into their news reporting. The spread of information from news is faster than ever with the help of Twitter. Reporters don't even have to type that much into the status box to make a big statement or grab their audience's attention on the site. Plus, it's a way to gather more viewers onto your page since it's linked to your Twitter. Although, the spread of information on Twitter can become detrimental for some people. For example, the Spike Lee incident regarding the Trayvon Martin case. Lee tweeted what seemed to be the address of George Zimmerman, but he actually tweeted the wrong address. It goes to show you how fast information spreads and how people disseminate and quickly believe the information handed to them. Incorporating links is another way that journalists use Twitter. Many news companies will post the headline or a couple lines from the full article because of the 140 character limit. If your status is catchy enough, you can receive a lot of hits really fast. Links saves the journalist time and space in the status box when posting on Twitter than anywhere else it seems.

For this project, the five organizations that I chose to follow are FUNimation, Sally Hansen, Sanrio, Influenster, and AllKPop.

I chose to follow FUNimation because it's one of my favorite places to watch anime. I watch anime on a semi-regular basis and it has most of my favorite series. FUNimation also sells DVD's and shares information and events about the world of anime. Following this Twitter informs me about all the different animes coming out and news going on in the anime business. Since following them on Twitter, they post on a constant basis and keep up with their tweeting.

The second organization that I follow is Sally Hansen. I am a nail polish and nail art addict and Sally Hansen is one of my favorite nail polish brands. I followed this Twitter because I wanted to know more about the Sally Hansen company and especially any new colors or collections that they are planning to put out in the future. While following this organization, they post pictures of their new colors which keeps me interested in seeing what they're planning on doing next with the company. I also get information about other beauty products and sales that they going on. It's a great way to find out about new products and receive exclusive offers.

The third organization that I chose to follow is Sanrio. I'm a big Hello Kitty fan and of some of the other characters under Sanrio. I'm not sure if I followed the right Sanrio page because the one that I'm following doesn't have a lot of information about products that they sell on the Sanrio website. Either way, the Twitter is a cute page to go to occasionally. During the project, the page mostly tweeted about the character's birthdays and some events that Sanrio has planned for the future.

The fourth organization that I follow is Influenster. Influenster is a fairly new site that sends out full sized products for free. The site also has badges, which when you fill them out, you have a better chance of getting picked to receive free items. In exchange of getting the free items, users have to review the product on the site and Influenster encourages users to review products on blogs and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. I'm following this Twitter because I wanted to receive hints of what the Vox box products are. They give out very good products in the boxes. Influenster also encourages followers to suggest products to them to put in the boxes. It's interesting to see how this organization is growing as a website and an organization.

The last organization that I'm following on Twitter is AllKPop. AllKPop is a site that caters to K-Pop fans. It's mainly a celebrity gossip site, but it's the closest and most reliable news sources that caters to K-Pop fans. I follow this Twitter because it's easier for me to go onto the Twitter and see all the articles, instead of sifting through the website. All the full articles are made into links, and it's way easier to get to them through Twitter.

Using Twitter is definitely different than blogging and social media. For one, Twitter is public and open to everyone. On other sites, you have the option to make your profile public or private. Another thing is that for me tweeting was kind of addicting, but at the same time it's very ineffective unless you're a popular figure on Twitter. It feels like you don't really have a say on the site, or for better words, it's pretty hard to get people to pay attention to your posts if you're not popular or you have nothing important to say on it. I feel that if this was my personal Twitter account, there would be more interaction between my friends and I. The last thing about the site is that it's a little confusing and kind of limited. Posting statuses can be fun in a way, but there's not a lot that you can really do with the site. I had to stop sometimes because I was getting kind of bored with posting statuses, especially 20 and being limited with these five organizations.  I feel on other blogging and social media sites, there's more features that you can utilize and use. For example, games. I'm not sure how games would work on Twitter, but Twitter needs something to make it more interesting. But, obviously they're doing a good job being what it is right now. I just think that Twitter needs to create more features that will keep everyone's attention.