Top Ten Tweeters....
| Name | Number of Followers | Number Following | Number ofTweets |
| Katy Perry | 47,515,699 | 127 | 5,240 |
| Justin Bieber | 47,161,094 | 121,255 | 24,556 |
| Lady Gaga | 40,629,348 | 135,104 | 3,887 |
| Barack Obama | 40,011,141 | 655,892 | 10,388 |
| Taylor Swift | 36,917,755 | 119 | 2,005 |
| YouTube | 36,466,539 | 538 | 9,212 |
| Britney Spears | 34,228,689 | 405,967 | 2,963 |
| Rihanna | 32,767,255 | 985 | 8,695 |
| 29,163,423 | 18 | 4,435 | |
| Justin Timberlake | 28,540,816 | 59 | 1,986 |
Twitter is used by celebrities, companies and politicians as
a marketing tool to promote their image. Twitter allows them to send a quick
140 character message out to their followers to keep interest high and promote
their products, celebrity status or political views. Millions of other people
are Twitter users as well, they Tweet about their lives, reply and re-tweet
messages. These people are also followers of others and have followers
themselves. This intern builds their virtual community and therefore their
networks. This is what makes Twitter a valuable tool – you can potentially communicate
with millions of people in a matter of seconds. No wonder buying followers is
big business!!
Rheingold would view Twitter as a tool to use in his virtual
community in between being immersed in the ‘WELL’ (World Earth Lectronic Link).
Click here to view the ‘WELL’ http://www.well.com/
Rheingold believes more people need to know about the
leverage and potential of virtual communities, Twitter is a small segment that allows
communication in a virtual community. Interesting as Rheingold predicts those
with power and money will control the new virtual communities and media (Rheingold, n.d.), as they have done in the
past. This is certainly true for Twitter where people and companies actually
buy followers, therefore boosting their status and increasing their community.
According to Jenkins the technology we have such as; mobile
devices, social media and other technologies are used as platforms to get our
message or story across to other people (Jenkins,
2009). Twitter is part of this platform and as you can see by the Top
Ten Twitter uses Barack Obama is number 4. Jenkins also uses Obama as an
example in his clip on New Media Landscapes. Click here to view the clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJaqXVaOaI
Crisis Management....
Twitter is a valuable tool in times of crisis and can be used to alert a community of impending disaster, giving them instructions as the crisis progresses. The United Kingdom has implemented a Twitter news alert service that emergency services can use to alert people when a crisis is in progress. While this is a great idea, there are some problems to iron out such as people posting false messages causing greater panic. The emergency services are using an ‘orange bell’ alert that they are hoping will reduce false messages (Prigg, 2013).
Future....
Twitter will live on in the future, until new innovative medium is launched. It will still be used by dedicated Twitters, but will fade into the background just as MySpace was replaced with Facebook.
Reflection....
Personally I am not a tweeter. Are you? Would you pay for followers if you had a company?
Until next week
Happy Tweeting
Cheers
Sheridan
References
Forbes, 2013. Top 10 Celebrity Tweeters. [Online]
Available at: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmj45fgfk/lady-gaga-8/
[Accessed 19 November 2013].
[Accessed 19 November 2013].
Jenkins, H.,
2009. The New Media Landscape, s.l.: HCD Media Group.
Prigg, M.,
2013. Mail Online. [Online]
Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2509305/Twitter-launches-UK-news-alert-service-tweet-information-times-crisis.html
[Accessed 4 December 2013].
Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2509305/Twitter-launches-UK-news-alert-service-tweet-information-times-crisis.html
[Accessed 4 December 2013].
Rheingold, H.,
n.d. Introduction. In: The Virtual Community. s.l.:Electronic Version.
Semiocast,
2012. Twitter- How much spam is on Twitter. [Online]
Available at: http://leaderswest.com/2012/08/20/twitter-how-prevalent-their-spam-epidemic-may-be/
[Accessed 4 December 2013].
Available at: http://leaderswest.com/2012/08/20/twitter-how-prevalent-their-spam-epidemic-may-be/
[Accessed 4 December 2013].
Smith, B.,
2013. Twitter Followers/Project TGM. [Online]
Available at: http://projecttgm.com/2013/04/3-reasons-i-may-or-may-not-follow-you-on-twitter/twitter-followers/#lightbox/0/
[Accessed 5 December 2013].
Available at: http://projecttgm.com/2013/04/3-reasons-i-may-or-may-not-follow-you-on-twitter/twitter-followers/#lightbox/0/
[Accessed 5 December 2013].
Twitter, 2013.
Twitter Counter. [Online]
Available at: http://twittercounter.com/pages/100
[Accessed 18 November 2013].
Available at: http://twittercounter.com/pages/100
[Accessed 18 November 2013].
A very interesting blog post Sheridan. I definitely agree with you that Twitter will probably 'fade into the background' like MySpace - I actually tried to find a few theories about this when I was researching for my own blog post. It's hard to imagine what the future holds in regard to social media as it's evolving at such a rapid pace. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!
ReplyDeleteI found your blog post on Twitter very interesting Sheridan :) People with power and money do tend to control traditional media and this will happen in the new virtual communities, where there is a chance to make more $ the leaches will never be far away. This is especially so considering the fact you can buy followers to increase profile and then can obtain further wealth through advertising due to that higher status. I also agree that their are some issues with crisis management so the new twitter alerts system goes a long way to helping with these issues. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteGreat work Sheridan. I found the point that virtual communities are predicted to be still ruled by the rich and powerful a very interesting concept. If this is the case, can we really say this new online participatory & virtual community culture facilitates greater democracy levels and more equality than traditional media? Homogeneous power in traditional media has always been a problem, whereby the small minority of powerful individuals, groups & government rule and control the public and media sphere's. Through my research, it has been conveyed that technology and this new participatory culture is somewhat overcoming this unequal distribution of power and control, hence creating a more diverse and democratic world, but maybe as Rheingold predicts this new culture just hides it better!
ReplyDeleteI think the 'popularity status' that Twitter encourages is a worry - especially for youths. I think 'buying followers' etc. is sending a wrong message; a message that self-worth and identity is based around how popular you are.
I wonder where Australia would be on that list. Seeing Indonesia at number 5 is a surprise - didn't see them as a tweeting nation.
ReplyDeleteBrigitte