Analysis of Social Media With Specific Focus On Twitter

Social Media Analysis
.. An In depth study with specific focus on “Twitter”
SUBMITTED BY:
ANAND KHAMAR (8048)
&
GAURANG PATEL (8075)
PROJECT GUIDE:
PROF. RAJESH ASRANI
SUBMITTED TO:
GUJARAT UNIVERSITY
AS A PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM
A T:
N.R. Institute of Business Management

Gujarat Law Society Campus, Ellisbridge,
Ahmedabad - 380006.
Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Table of Contents
Research Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 5
1.1 Introduction to Social Media: ............................................................................................................. 6
1.2 Current Trends in India: ...................................................................................................................... 7
1.3 Literature Review, Identification of Gap ............................................................................................. 8
1.3.1 Identification of Gaps:.................................................................................................................. 9
1.4 Objectives of the Research Study: ...................................................................................................... 9
1.5 Need For The Research Study: ............................................................................................................ 9
1.6 Scope of the Research Study: ........................................................................................................... 10
1.7 Description of Research: ................................................................................................................... 11
1.7.1 Type of Research Design: ........................................................................................................... 11
1.7.2 Data Collection: .......................................................................................................................... 11
Methods of secondary data collection ............................................................................................... 11
1.7.3Sample Design:............................................................................................................................ 12
1.7.4 Data Analysis: ............................................................................................................................. 13
1.7.5 Chapterisation scheme: ............................................................................................................. 14
1.7.6 Limitations of Report: ................................................................................................................ 15
An Introduction to the Social ...................................................................................................................... 16
Media Landscape ........................................................................................................................................ 16
2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 17
2.2 Social Media ...................................................................................................................................... 18
2.3 Distinction from Traditional Media ................................................................................................... 20
2.4 Forms of Social Media ....................................................................................................................... 21
2.4.1 PHOTO SITES .............................................................................................................................. 21
2.4.2 BLOG........................................................................................................................................... 22
2.4.3 MICROBLOGS ............................................................................................................................. 24
2.5 Some of the famous Social Media Networking Sites ........................................................................ 27
Twitter..... Introduction to Features and Processes ................................................................................... 31
3.1 Twitter - Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 31
3.2 Functioning of Twitter....................................................................................................................... 32
3.3 Twitter User ...................................................................................................................................... 33
3.4 Twitter Popularity ............................................................................................................................. 33

3.5 Twitter as a marketing tool ............................................................................................................... 34
3.6 Get Started on Twitter ...................................................................................................................... 35
Twitter- “A powerful social Media Tool” .................................................................................................... 47
4.1 Twitter and Its Successes .................................................................................................................. 48
4.2 The Power of Twitter’s Immediate Feedback ................................................................................... 51
4.3 Instant Access ................................................................................................................................... 53
Brand Building with Twitter ........................................................................................................................ 54
5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 55
5.2 Create a Story.................................................................................................................................... 58
5.3 Portraying Brand with Company’s Profile ......................................................................................... 60
5.4 Tweet Style - Creating Value ............................................................................................................. 62
5.5 Repetition.......................................................................................................................................... 72
Third-Party Tools of Twitter ........................................................................................................................ 73
6.1 Tweet Later ....................................................................................................................................... 74
6.2 Twitterific .......................................................................................................................................... 76
6.3 Twhirl ................................................................................................................................................ 77
6.4 Twitterfeed ....................................................................................................................................... 78
6.5 Twist .................................................................................................................................................. 79
6.6 Twellow ............................................................................................................................................. 80
6.7 TweetBeep ........................................................................................................................................ 81
6.8 TwitterCounter.................................................................................................................................. 82
6.9 Tweet Deck........................................................................................................................................ 83
6.10TwitThis ............................................................................................................................................ 84
6.11TwitPwr.com .................................................................................................................................... 86
Indian Companies on Twitter - A Usage Study............................................................................................ 87
7.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 88
7.2 Social Networking in India – Milestone @2009 ................................................................................ 88
7.3 Twitter and Indian companies .......................................................................................................... 90
7.4 Observation Criterion: ...................................................................................................................... 91
7.5 Key Findings: ..................................................................................................................................... 92
7.6 Twitter Applications .......................................................................................................................... 95
7.6.1 Customer service........................................................................................................................ 95
7.6.2 News Broadcast ......................................................................................................................... 97

7.6.3 Promotion & Buzz ...................................................................................................................... 97
7.7 How Indian Companies Use Twitter.................................................................................................. 99
7.8 The Road Ahead: ............................................................................................................................. 101
Questionnaire Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 102
8.1 ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE........................................................................................................ 103
8.2 ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES .............................................................................................................. 138
8.3 FACTOR ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................... 145
Key findings: .............................................................................................................................................. 151
Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................................ 152
Recommendations: ................................................................................................................................... 153
References: ............................................................................................................................................... 154
Annexure ................................................................................................................................................... 156
Glossary ..................................................................................................................................................... 163

Chapter 1
Research Methodology

1.1 Introduction to Social Media:
Social media involves a natural, genuine conversation between people about something of
mutual interest, a conversation built on the thoughts and experiences of the participants. It
is about sharing and arriving at a collective point, often for the purpose of making a better
or more-informed choice. Social Media isn’t about the content itself: it is about the way in
which consumers of content are connected and about the conversations that result. Social
media is an effective guidepost. Social media can be used to gather valuable information
about how the product, service, and brand are perceived in the marketplace.
Social media — in the business context — is based on the degree to which the actual
experience matches the expectation set.: Recent studies of Nielsen have shown that of the
estimated 3.5 billion word-of-mouth conversations that occur around the world each day,
about 2.3 billion of them — roughly two out of three —make a reference to a brand,
product, or service. Word of mouth is increasingly manifesting itself through digital social
media, where it spreads both farther and faster. This use of the Social Web is increasingly
important to marketers.
Social media differ from traditional media (industrial media) like television, newspaper
and film by its nature of interactivity. Users generate as well as consume content which is
shared, distributed and discussed. Photos, videos, audio or text are the formats this content
is shared in. Facebook, Flickr, YouTube or Slide Share are a few of the most known websites
reflecting the typical characteristics of Web 2.0. These websites and alike are summarized
under the term social media.
One of the youngest and currently most referred to social media services is Twitter. Twitter
is a so called micro-blogging service that allows users to exchange short text messages. This
research paper introduces Twitter and investigates its potential for customer service and
branding for Indian companies. Finally recommendations show best practice to use
Twitter.

1.2 Current Trends in India:
Corporate social media presence: Many corporate In India now has started up with
the social media marketing, In India, Kingfisher was the first airline in India to build a
full-fledged formal presence on Twitter and embrace social media. This initiative has
added to Kingfisher Airlines’ convenience factor because it allows the airline to send
instant updates to its customers. Kingfisher Airlines is also putting the Twitter
platform to good use to enhance its service, get feedback and interact with its
customers directly without the use of intermediaries.
Emphasis on real-time data: Sites that provide transactional data and news in real
time will always be in demand. These include news sites, Google Blog Search for
updated blog commentary, Marketwatch.com for US stocks and Moneycontrol.com
(Indian stocks), Twitter.com for the latest news, and Twitter commentary.
Twitter in India:
Twitter is witnessing a mind-blowing traffic growth worldwide and India is no
exception – the micro blogging site has registered 74% traffic jump (in terms of unique
users) in the month of March.(Source: www.com score.com).
Infosys team recently closed a deal successfully using Twitter. The prospective buyer
posted a query on Twitter, which Infy team tracked (yeah, a lot of B2B companies track
keywords on social media sites). Infy’s sales team got in touch with the buyer
and closed the deal, marking their first successful sale in the twitter world.

1.3 Literature Review, Identification of Gap
For the purpose of getting more insights about the social media and twitter the
researchers have made brief literature review and found out that, Twitter was
launched in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noha Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams
(CEO). Twitters capital consists of founding and venture capital and is valued at
around 60 million US dollar (Arrington, 2008). Around 6 million people are signed in
to Twitter and 55 million people visit Twitter‘s homepage monthly (Kazeniac, 2009).
Twitter is a messaging service that shares a lot of characteristics with communication

tools you already use. It has elements that are similar to email, IM, texting, blogging,
RSS, social networks and so forth. But a few factors, particularly in combination, make
Twitter unique:
 Really easy to write and read.
 One can readily meet new people on Twitter.
 One gets an opportunity to be interesting for people opting for his/her
Updates
 Fit with nearly anyone’s workflow.
Twitter for Business:

Recently, Twitter has been adopted by companies of various professions. In the USA
companies have been using Twitter earlier than in India. The American carriers
Southwest Airlines or JetBlue, the communications company Comcast or the online
shoe retailer Zappos have become well known for their Twitter usage
(SOURCE:www.twitter.com). Twitter becomes better known in India, too, as
companies are discovering this service as well. The way companies use Twitter differs
highly.

1.3.1 Identification of Gaps:
The researchers has found out how Twitter could be utilized by companies to extend
their customer service approach. Since Twitter has been launched in mid 2006
companies used it for different purposes.
E.g. Dell and Vista Print give out discounts exclusively via Twitter and CNN and the
New York Times feed short news and links to their articles via Twitter. Now, some
companies start to provide customer service via Twitter (Source: Perez, 2009).
In India however things look differently. Twitter has not yet established very well in
India and even unknown by most India. Thus only few companies can be found on
Twitter and those using this service are mostly from the field of media, advertising or
marketing. To find Indian companies providing customer service in the proactive and
communicative way American companies do is very hard. Some of the companies
mentioned above do however communicate actively with their followers and use
Twitter to exchange information rather than to solely give out information.
Thus, in order to give insights to the various companies in India about the various use
of twitter in their branding exercise and also about the twitter users’ profiles in India
their preference and expectation from the twitter, the researchers had decided to
execute the research.
1.4 Objectives of the Research Study:

 To evaluate Tweeter as a social media and identify its unique propositions.
 To evaluate Tweeter as corporate strategic tool for brand building.
 To obtain insight in the current twitter behavior of Indian twitters in order to define
a set of criterion & rules that gives advice to Indian companies how to use twitter for
their customer service approach.
1.5 Need For The Research Study:

The researchers wanted initially to find the gap existing in the Indian market wherein
extensive use of Twitter as a marketing tool was still not established. Thus, to justify
the existence of this gap and to propose better options to Indian corporate for
flourishing, this research study was conducted.
1.6 Scope of the Research Study:

The study of the Twitter users had been done to understand the usage pattern of the
users and accordingly suggest Indian corporate to make use of Twitter as a marketing
tool. Research for the preference for twitter was carried out randomly online, which
includes places around India. Respondents from various cities like Mumbai, Delhi,
Masoori, Baroda, and Bangalore had submitted their responses online. And from
various places within Ahmedabad city personal survey has been conducted.
Twitter users who were focused for the survey are a homogeneous mixture of men
and women again of different age groups.
The users comprise of skilled working men and women, businessmen, housewives,
students, college goers (youth).
Educational Background of the target audience would be classified into the following
categories. College goers (Graduates and Post Graduates) and School goers.

1.7 Description of Research:
1.7.1 Type of Research Design:
As the researchers wanted to know about a particular group of people, i.e. youth and were
trying to describe its characteristics for twitter usage. The other reason was that the
research was pre planned and structured .Therefore descriptive research design has been
used in this project.
1.7.2 Data Collection:

To achieve the objectives stated, the researcher has collected the data of both the kinds,
primary as well as secondary data. To analyze it was necessary to collect the data.
Secondary data collection:
The secondary data is necessary to get the information about Twitter, its usage all over the
world and particularly in India. Some of the key statistics are only derived by the externally
published online secondary sources. So the researchers have made secondary data
collection.
Methods of secondary data collection:
Secondary data is mainly collected by the following means:
o Internet databases
o Industry Publications
o Catalogues & brochures
o Journals
o Research papers
Primary data collection:
The researchers have found out that in order to gain insights about Twitter user of India, it
was necessary to collect the primary data, which means that the data obtained for this
research only. The primary data is mainly quantitative in nature and has been collected
through questionnaire.

About the questionnaire:
The questionnaire has been designed to collect the primary data. It includes both open
ended and closed ended questions. It also includes questions wherein statistical scales like
rank order scale, likert scale etc.
Methods of primary data collection:
The following methods of primary data collection were used:
 Online Survey Tool i.e. www.surveygizmos.com

 Personal survey using questionnaire
 The link of the online questionnaire was published on the various social media
platforms e.g. Face-book, Orkut, LinkedIn etc. so as to get the questionnaire will be
submitted by the relevant user only
1.7.3Sample Design:
Sampling Unit
The sample consisted of the internet users, mainly youth, which includes students,
executives and professionals.
Sample Size
500 Internet Users as defined in the sampling unit.
Sampling Technique
The sampling techniques used for the research are
 Non probability sampling

 Convenience sampling.

1.7.4 Data Analysis:
The researchers have used inferential statistics in order to draw conclusion. Result
of the study has been put in tables and graphs for easy understanding of the findings
of the research. Also SPSS 17 software has been used for the same.

1.7.5 Chapterisation scheme:
The Chapterisation scheme for the research is shown as follows:
• Research Methodologies
• It contains the details of the methodologies adopted for the execution of the project
CH. 1 right from sampling analysis to data analysis in a precised format
• An Introduction to Social Media Landscape

• It contains the details of various types of social media and their uses including
CH. 2 blogging, micro blogging, video & photo sharing etc.
• Twitter : Introduction to features and

CH. 3 processes
• It contains of the entire details of twitter, its scope, its activities, its informal and
formal usage and its possible applications
• Twitter, a powerful social media tool

CH. 4 • It gives a brief about the powerful application of Twitter as a marketing/media tool
• Brand Building with Twitter

•It explains the usage of Twitter for the Brand Building of various corporate in India and how
CH. 5 they can incorporate Twitter as an Integrated Marketing Communications Tool
• Third Party Tools of Twitter

• It gives details of the applications of Twitter generated by Third Party programmers
CH. 6 and used as open source elsewhere

• Indian Companies on Twitter: A Usage
CH. 7 Study
• It identifies the usage and application of twitter by the Indian corporate to keep in
pace with the ongoing global scenario
• Data Analysis
• The interpretation of data derived from the survey statistically and its analysis are
CH. 8 explained in this chapter
• Key findings & Conclusion

• The final chapter which concludes with clear explanation of all the key findings
CH. 9 and their derivations
1.7.6 Limitations of Report:
 Some of the respondents who have been contacted online have left some of the
question unanswered and Reluctance on the part of the respondents to provide
exact details when contacted personally.
 Time constraint as stipulated by university norms

Chapter 2
An Introduction to the Social
Media Landscape

2.1 Introduction
Once upon a time, anyone could be a media publisher. All one needed was several million
dollars, a team of editors and writers, a printing press capable of shooting out a dozen
copies a second, and a distribution network that would put the publication in stores across
the country.
Unless, of course, someone wanted to go into radio or television. In that case, things were
just a little harder.
The result was that information came down. People didn’t talk among themselves; they
were talked to by writers, editors, and producers, who chose the subjects and told them
what they thought. If people liked what they were reading, they kept tuning in and the
company made money. If people didn’t like it, they stopped buying the magazine or they
switched channels. When that happened, advertisers turned away, and all of the millions of
dollars required to create the publication disappeared.
Today, it’s all so very different. It can cost literally nothing to create content and make it
available for other people to enjoy. That low cost means that it doesn’t matter if it’s not
read by millions. One can focus on a small market—even one interested in stamp collecting
in Mozambique—and still find enough people to form a community and maybe even make
a profit through advertising and product sales.
It’s called the “long tail,” and the Internet has made fantastic use of it.
But the low cost of publishing online has had another effect: People aren’t being talked to
by professional writers and publishers anymore; they’re talking to each other.
Average folk like you and me—the kind of people who didn’t study journalism at
university, who never spent years as a cub reporter covering local court cases, and who
were never even very good at Scrabble, let alone putting together articles—are writing

About the topics they love and sharing their views. And they’re hearing back too. The
conversation is flowing in both directions.
Anyone now can launch a Web site, write articles, or even create videos and put them live.
And anyone can comment on that content, affecting both its nature and the direction of the
publication.
That’s social media, and it’s a publishing revolution.
2.2 Social Media
Social media can be all sorts of different things, and it can be produced in all sorts of
different ways. Perhaps the best definition of social media, though, is content that has been
created by its audience.
Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using
highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human
need for social interaction with technology, transforming broadcast media monologues
(one too many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the
democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content
consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated
content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).
Social media can be said to have 3 components

1. Concept (art, information, or meme).
2. Media (physical, electronic, or verbal).
3. Social interface (intimate direct, community engagement, social viral, electronic
broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as print).

Facebook, for example, is not a publishing company. It doesn’t create any of its own
content. It doesn’t write articles or posts, and it doesn’t upload films or images for people
to view and enjoy. It allows its users to do all of that on its behalf.
Create a group on a site like Face book and users won’t be expected to supply all of the text
and all of the images. You’ll be expecting other group members to add their stories and
photographs too. Even bloggers, when they write a post, expect their readers to join the
discussion by leaving comments at the bottom of the post that take the argument in new
directions and add new information. This is the “social” part of social media, and it means
that publishing is now about participation. Someone who uses social media successfully
doesn’t just create content; he or she creates conversations. And those conversations create
communities.
That’s the real beauty of social media, and while it may or may not be the goal—depending
on the site—the result of social media can always be firm connections between the people
who participate. When those connections are formed around businesses, the results can be
the sort of brand loyalty and commitment that sales professionals have been dreaming
about since the first days of direct marketing.
At its narrowest, it describes one way in which publishers and marketers can put their
messages in front of thousands of people and encourage them to build strong connections
and firm loyalty.
However it’s defined though, social media has proved incredibly popular.
Twitter, which was launched more than two years after MySpace—a lifetime in Internet
terms—isn’t quite in the same numeric league, but its growth has still been phenomenal.
According to the site’s own blog, around half of all Twitterers follow and are followed by
just 10 people. The top 10 percent of Twitterers have more than 80 followers and follow
more than 70 people.

2.3 Distinction from Traditional Media
 Social media are distinct from industrial media, such as newspapers, television, and
film.
 While social media are relatively inexpensive and accessible tools that enable
anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, industrial media
generally require significant resources to publish information.
 Examples of industrial media issues include a printing press or a government-
granted spectrum license.
 One characteristic shared by both social media and industrial media is the capability
to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television
show may reach zero people or millions of people.
The properties that help describe the differences between social media and industrial
media depend on the study. Some of these properties are:
1. Reach - both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable
anyone to reach a global audience.
2. Accessibility - the means of production for industrial media are typically owned
privately or by government; social media tools are generally available to anyone at
little or no cost.
3. Usability - industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and
training. Most social media do not, or in some cases reinvent skills, so anyone can
operate the means of production.
4. Regency - the time lag between communications produced by industrial media can
be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be
capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any
delay in response). As industrial media are currently adopting social media tools,
this feature may well not be distinctive anymore in some time.
5. Permanence - industrial media, once created, cannot be altered (once a magazine
article is printed and distributed changes cannot be made to that same article)
whereas social media can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or
editing.

2.4 Forms of Social Media
2.4.1 PHOTO SITES

Ever since cameras went digital, there’s been a need for a low cost— or even free—way to
share those images with anyone who wants to see them online. Both Facebook and
MySpace allow their users to upload their images, but neither of them is a dedicated
photography site. Images are just one form of content that users are free to share on those
sites, together with videos, personal histories, group discussions, etc.
There are sites, however, that specialize in photography. They depend entirely on the
photos that users upload to bring in other users. That broad-based content sourcing
already makes sites like Flickr—one of the most popular photo-sharing sites, and now
Figure 2.1 Flickr is the big daddy of photo-sharing Web sites.
Owned by Yahoo!—part of the social media phenomenon, but Flickr also has the
networking power of those sites.
Like Facebook and MySpace, it’s possible to create long lists of friends, and you can join
groups where you can submit images, enter competitions, and join discussions about the
best way to light a child’s portrait or which lens to use in which conditions.

Flickr also allows its members to mark images as favourites and to place comments
beneath them. Both of those activities can be valuable ways of adding new friends. Pro
members, who pay a subscription fee of $24.95 per year, can even see stats that indicate
how many views, and comments each image has produced, and even where their visitors
came from.
Every day, images are licensed and prints are sold on Flickr, and it’s all based on content
created by the site’s users and promoted through careful networking.
That’s classic social media.
2.4.2 BLOG
A blog (a contraction of the term "weblog") is a type of website, usually maintained by an
individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material
such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
"Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
HISTORY:
 The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997.
 The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word
weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May
1999.
 Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to
blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term
"blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization
of the terms.
TYPES OF BLOG:
 Personal blogs
The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional,
most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if
their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to

Just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can
have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but
Some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. A type of personal blog is
referred to as "micro blogging," which is extremely detailed blogging as it seeks to
capture a moment in time. A site, such as Twitter, allows bloggers to share thoughts
and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing
or writing.
 Corporate blogs
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either
used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or
externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate
blogs.
 Genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, house
blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs,
quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. Two
common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring
discussions especially about home and family is not uncommonly called a mom blog.
While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is
known as a Splog.
 By media type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a link log, a site
containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketch blog or one comprising photos is
called a photo blog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumble
logs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or
typecast blogs; see typecasting (blogging).

 By device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written
by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a mob log. One early blog
was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life
combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and Eye
Tap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video
together with text was referred to as surveillance. Such journals have been used as
evidence in legal matters.
2.4.3 MICROBLOGS
Social media sites tend to want their members to contribute as much content as possible.
They may restrict that content to just photographs (or, on Flickr, video now as well), or
they may restrict membership to a select few (in the case of my membership site, to
dedicated Internet marketers; in the case of dating sites, to dedicated singles), but on the
whole, they want their members to offer as much content as possible.
Microblog sites place strict limits on the content that can be uploaded . . . and they find that
those limits encourage creativity.
Twitter
Twitter—the site that has really set the standard in microblogging.
History
The service was founded by programmers Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone in July
2006. Williams was a serial An Introduction to the Social Media Landscape 19 entrepreneur
who had founded a company called Pyra Labs that made project management software. A
note-taking feature on that software went on to become Blogger, the free blogging service
later bought by Google. According to one theory, it was Williams who first used the term
“blogger” to describe people who write Web logs.

In 2004, Williams left Google to form podcasting company Odeo and, two years later,
created Obvious with Biz Stone, a programmer who had joined Blogger after its acquisition
by the search engine giant. The new company bought Odeo, which it later sold to a
company called Sonic Mountain. It now focuses on Twitter.
The original idea for Twitter came from Dorsey, an Odeo employee. In an interview for
ReadWriteTalk.com with Sean Ammirati, VP of Business Development and Product
Management at mSpoke, Stone described the moment when they first discussed the idea:
“A few of us were thinking about what are some interesting

ways that maybe we can merge SMS to the web,” he said.
“[Dorsey] had come up with this idea where if you just look
at only the status field of an instant message application
like AIM, and you just look at that as a sort of really small
version of what people are already doing . . . and you just
make it super simple, ‘Here’s what I’m doing.’ . . . [W]e kind
of went off in a corner and we worked for two weeks and
we created a prototype. We showed the rest of the team
and everyone just sort of giggled. They all kind of loved it.
It was really fun. We used it over the weekend. We found
it very compelling and we decided that we would keep
working on it.”
That was in March 2006; initially, Twitter was used by the company’s employees as a fun
form of internal communication. (Tech companies, it seems, might have lava lamps and
space hoppers, but they never seem to have water coolers!) The service launched officially
in October 2006, picked up a South by Southwest Web (SXSW) Award in March 2007, and
by April was a separate entity headed by Dorsey.

Figure 2.2 Twitter’s iconic “fail whale.” Designed by Yiying Lu,
the beluga whale supported by twittering birds is now a brand in its
own right after its frequent appearance on an overstrained
Twitter site.
Helped by the publicity generated by the SXSW award, boosted by references on Blogger
(where the company had good connections, of course), and most importantly making itself
attractive with an open platform that let other developers extend the service, the site
started to take off.
That has led to some problems. In 2007, Twitter was reported to have had just 98 percent
uptime—a loss of three whole days over the year—and tended to suffer

Particularly badly during major tech conferences (which says something about many of its
users, too).
There are two things that really distinguish Twitter, though. The first is its simplicity.
Although the service now has piles of additional tools and add-ons which extend its use, at
its core, Twitter remains nothing more than a way of describing what you’re doing in no
more than 140 characters. That brevity and simplicity have always been key, and they’re
what brought Twitter its second characteristic: critical mass.
It takes a special push to get a social media site snowballing to a size big enough for
everyone to feel comfortable about climbing on board. For Twitter, it was the boost it
received with its SXSW Award, which had everyone talking about the service as the next big
thing. As long it has that critical mass—and with more than three million members it
certainly has that—Twitter is always going to be the microblogging service to beat.
2.5 Some of the famous Social Media Networking Sites
 ORKUT
Orkut is a free-access social networking service owned and operated by Google. The
service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships.
HISTORY:
 Orkut was launched on January 22, 2004 by Google as independent project of Orkut
Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer.
 The community membership was originally by invitation only. At first year, United
States had the largest user base.
 Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and
MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil.
 In fact, as of May 2009, 49.83% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India
with 17.51%.

FEATURES:
 A user first creates a "Profile", in which the user provides "Social", "Professional"
and "Personal" details.
 Users can upload photos into their Orkut profile with a caption.
 Users can also add videos to their profile from either YouTube or Google Video with
the additional option of creating either restricted or unrestricted polls for polling a
community of users.
 There is an option to integrate GTalk (An instant messenger from Google) with
Orkut enabling chatting and file sharing.
 Currently gtalk has been integrated in orkut. Users can directly chat from orkut
page.
 Scrapbook: "Scrapping" is popular among the Orkut community as a form of offline
and online communication. In December 2007, the ability to pop up alerts when a
scrap is received was added.
 Themes: The new features in orkut is Themes. Users can change their interface from
a wide range of colorful theme library.Themes are currently only available in India
and Brazil.
 FACEBOOK
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by
Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their
personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join
networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region.
HISTORY:
 Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his roommates and fellow computer
science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was
a student at Harvard University.

 The website's membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was
expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford
University.
 It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school
students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over.
 The website currently has more than 250 million active users worldwide.
FEATURES:
 The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference
between the two websites is the level of customization.
 MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS), while Facebook only allows plain text.
 They include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to
post messages for the user to see, Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke"
to each other (a notification that tells a user that they have been poked)
 Photos, where users can upload albums and photos, and Status, which allows users
to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions.
 A user's Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's profile, depending on
privacy settings.
In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the
Wall was previously limited to textual content only.
 LINKEDIN
LinkedIn (pronounced /ˈlɪŋkt.ˈɪn/) is a business-oriented social networking site.
Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. It is mainly used for professional
networking. As of 11 February 2010, LinkedIn had more than 60 million registered users,
spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

HISTORY:
 Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn and now executive vice
president of PayPal, oversees day-to-day operations and is also Chairman of the
Board. Dipchand Nishar is Vice President of Products.
 LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Omaha,

Chicago, New York and London. They are funded by Greylock, Sequoia Capital,
Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached
profitability in March 2006.
 On June 17, 2008, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other venture capital
firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a
post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion.
FEATURES:
 The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact
details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called
Connections.
This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:
 A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the
connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and
also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree
connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes
to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
 It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended
by someone in one's contact network.
 Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
 Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their
existing contacts can introduce them.
Chapter 3
Twitter..... Introduction to Features and
Processes
3.1 Twitter - Introduction

Twitter is a micro-blogging site - meaning user can state his thoughts, views, opinions and
links, but in a super-compact way. In fact, with Twitter, user only gets to use 140 characters
for each post, affectionately known as a tweet. At first glance, someone may think 140
characters can't possibly give him enough room to say anything of value, but once he jumps
into the flow, he'll be amazed at the way Twitter can change his social media marketing
world.
3.2 Functioning of Twitter
Twitter works as a real-time social media platform for users to update their followers with
tidbits of information, chitchat, tips and tricks and other short messages that are broadcast
to a group of users who have chosen to stay updated to your messages. While there are
over 6 million users on Twitter, according to the latest statistics, individuals choose who
they want to interact with by "following" them.
Every user gets a profile page, with room for a short bio, a photo and a link to the site of his
choice. The profile page also includes a button people can click on to begin "following" him
- which means they will have access to all of the updates from that user.
The more followers user acquire the stronger his networking capabilities become on
Twitter. Twitter functions as an ever increasing network as each person interacts with
their following, who then connects them to their own group of followers and on and on it
grows.
When the user create his user account and choose some people to follow, they have the
opportunity to follow him back. As user’s followers start to get to know him, they will look
to him to promote other people on Twitter and when they find people they relate to, they
will begin following them as well. This “tell two friends who tell two friends who

tell two friends" networking will expand the user’s network faster than he can possibly
imagine.
3.3 Twitter User

At the rate Twitter is growing, it won't be long before the answer to this question is
EVERYONE! Twitter is growing at a pace of over 7500 users every day, with a total right
now of over six million users! Twitter is a great place to connect, both in business and
personally, for anyone who is looking for a platform where they can reach out to a wide
network of people at one time.
Twitter is popular with many different kinds of people. In business, the users will find
lawyers, realtors, writers, web designers, Internet marketers, coaches, entrepreneurs,
bloggers, small business owners, large corporations, and politicians - even the President of
the United States! Users'll find famous people, infamous people, unknown people - the truth
is, Twitter is being used by folks from every walk of life you can imagine to connect with
others and market their businesses.
3.4 Twitter Popularity

One of the reasons Twitter is so popular is that Twitter is so popular! In other words, so
many people are using Twitter that it is rapidly becoming THE place to connect on the web.
In fact, mainstream media has started using Twitter- and talking about it. CNN and Fox
News both discuss Twitter and use it as a way for viewers to offer input on various stories.
In the recent Presidential election of USA, President Obama's campaign used Twitter as
part of their massive campaign efforts - with obvious success!
Twitter's popularity comes from its ease of use. It's also quite addictive! Many people who
questioned whether Twitter was worth the effort find they love the fast-paced interaction

of the site. Twitter is all about immediate connections and real-time relationship building.
Human beings are social animals who thrive on relationships and interaction with each
other. Twitter provides immediate contact with others- no waiting for return emails or
finding people on various Instant Messengers. The users can jump
on Twitter any time, day or night, and connect with someone immediately. Often, just
taking five or ten minutes to tweet with others is all it really takes to build the list
followers, bring people to the user’s website or break through a struggle.
3.5 Twitter as a marketing tool
Twitter works for marketers for a couple of reasons. The first, and most important one, is
Twitter is different from a lot of marketing techniques. It really is all about making
connections and creating relationships. Yes, it sounds impossible to believe that
communicating in short little bursts can actually foster real relationships, but it's true.
Perhaps it's because of the real-time interaction.
It could be because when someone has to focus on the word choice, with only 140
characters, He/she takes the time to make sure every word counts. It could come down to
the fact that Twitter is downright fun - and addictive!
Of course, some folks will tell that, Twitter is a great marketing tool because the marketers
can find a targeted audience who CHOOSE to follow them and read their messages and
they'd be right.
The truth is Twitter works for a variety of different reasons. The good news is, those
reasons all add up to the reality that Twitter DOES WORK! Even though it is a serious
marketing tool, there is something about the way people get real on Twitter that someone
just don't see in many other platforms, that lets him get to know people's real personalities.
That is what inspires trust and creates bonds that lead to sales.

Let's look a bit closer about how to get started on Twitter, so anyone can begin using this
amazing networking tool in his business today.
3.6 Get Started on Twitter

The easiest way to get a real understanding of the power of Twitter is to create an account
and get started. It only takes a few minutes to set up the account.
Setting up an Account
Go to http://www.twitter.com and click on the “Get Started - Join” link.

Figure 3.1
The interested person will be taken to a form to create his account that looks like this,
where he’ll enter his first and last name in the Full Name box. (Easy so far, right?)

Figure 3.2
Then follow the steps to create the username. The username is the name everyone will
know him by, so give some thought to the name before choosing it.
Every time user posts a message, known as a tweet, on Twitter, user’s name and profile
picture will be displayed, so users definitely don't want to choose a username made of
random numbers and letters.
Twitter lets user to use up to 15 characters (with no spaces) for the username, so use them
wisely. If he chooses not to use his actual name, try to create a name that tells people what
he/she is doing. The users can use his business name, but very often,

Something a little more personal is more effective. Remember the key to social media is the
social part, so you want to choose a username that lets people relate to you as a person.
Keep in mind, also, that if you choose a random username made up of assorted letters and
numbers, people may think user is a spammer and block him.
The next step is to enter the email address. Make sure to enter an actual email address that
is being used on a regular basis. Twitter will not send spam email, but they will use the
email address to alert to new followers and direct messages, if the user chooses to be
alerted later in his profile. He will also be notified, via email, if he loses or forget his
username or password.
Once user creates the account, he will be taken to a screen where he can check to see if
anyone he knows is already using twitter based on various email address.
Next is a screen with some suggested followers. User can scan through if he’d like or he can
choose to skip this step as well. Now the user reached the area that will help him market
himself and his business. This is where user starts personalizing the profile.

Figure 3.3

In the upper right hand corner is the navigation panel, with links to move around the
backend of the Twitter account. Click on “Settings” to continue personalizing theTwitter
account.
Figure 3.4

Once user reaches the settings page, he’ll notice some things are already filled in for him.
The name of him, Username (this is what makes up the URL to the profile page) and the
email address. If user wants to change them feel free to do so now. He’ll need to re-enter
the password if he does.
After user gets those items the way he wants them, there are two important fields he needs
to fill in so that people can find him and his business.
1. The first is the "More Info URL." Use this to add a link to the website, blog,
Facebook page or any other significant link user has that gives people an
opportunity to find out more about user and/or user’s business.
2. The other field user needs to fill in is the "One Line Bio" field. Here he has one line
(160 characters) to share some more information about himself. Make this as
interesting as one can in the space allotted. This bio will be one of the ways people
decide if they will follow the user or not, so tell them who you are and what you do.
The settings page also allows user to add the time zone and the location. So be sure to
complete those too.
Finally, on the bottom of the page is a box user can check if he wants to protect the updates.
If user checks this box, people will only be able to see his/her updates if they have special
permission. This option is not recommended – especially when user is trying to build a
network of followers. Unless he plans to use the Twitter account to communicate only with
a select group of people, you should leave this box empty. When user is finished filling in
the settings, be sure to click on “Save” at the bottom of the page.

Use of Twitter with the Cell Phone
On the right hand side of the home page, user will see section towards the bottom labelled
Device Updates with a link “Set up SMS Device.”
Figure 3.5
If user wants to send and receive the Twitter messages from the mobile phone or an instant
messenger, he can add that information here. Keep in mind however, if he uses his cell
phone to communicate on Twitter, he may be charged standard text messaging rates for
your tweets.

Notification Options
Click on the “Notices” tab and user will find options for receiving email notifications when
people follow him or when he receive a direct message. A direct message is a private
message sent from one follower to another, without showing up in the general stream of
tweets for others to see.
Figure 3.6
It's a good idea to select the email option for direct messages (or DM's, in Twitter-speak) as
user doesn't receive any other notification that he has one. All DM's he receives do show up
in a special section on the home page (labelled Direct Messages) but other than checking
this area periodically, he won't know they are accumulating without the email notifications.

It's also nice to receive an email when user gets a new follower so he has the opportunity to
follow them back and/or send them a "welcome" message. (This is a great opportunity to
let them know a bit more about user and his website, but don’t make it too sales pitchy.)
Show them:
The next step in preparing the Twitter profile is to upload a picture to be shown with the
tweets and on the home page. Click the “Picture” tab and upload the photo of choice.
Figure 3.6

This isn't the time to be shy. Use a real photo of one’s own self. User should want the
followers to see him as a real person, so they choose to interact with him and a real photo
goes a long way toward helping people connect with him. It helps to use the same photo
user uses on other social media sites as well as on the own site or blog.
Give Page Some Personality
Finally, user can customize how the homepage looks under by clicking the “Design” tab.
This feature allows him a small amount of flexibility in the look of the homepage.
Figure 3.7
There are a few default design backgrounds user can choose and he can change the colours
of the background. It can be helpful to use colours that complement the website or blog

colours as part of the branding strategy. The design feature in Twitter is pretty limited. If
user is interested in a custom background, he can design his own in
Photoshop, hire a designer or use a service like TwitterWebs.com or TwitDesign.com for a

custom Twitter background.
If user has a custom background made, he can share more links with the people who view
it. Although these links are not clickable, the background is a place user can at least let
people know how they can connect with him. It's a great place to share the other social
media profile names or links, like Facebook and LinkedIn. User can post a phone number if
he likes or any other information about his business.

Chapter 4
Twitter- “A powerful social Media Tool”

It’s big, and that makes it unique among microblogging services (if not among social media
sites).
It’s got buzz that other sites just don’t have.
And it’s growing at the kind of phenomenal rate that’s already forced the social media
giants to look over their shoulders and copy it.
But it’s not the only service that allows people to broadcast short messages. People already
seen that there are plenty of other sites that offer the same service in one form or another.
But Twitter is by far the most powerful microblogging service currently available, and
marketers absolutely need to be aware of it.
4.1 Twitter and Its Successes
Researcher mentioned that at its simplest; Twitter is just a means to send short updates to
people who want to receive them.
The most basic way to do that is to log into your Twitter account on the Web and type
tweet into the text field. Anyone can see all of the outgoing tweets if they choose to look at
users’ profile.
Followers can also see a list of tweets from everyone they follow when they log into their
Twitter home pages.
User Twitter experience, then, will be made up of sending their own updates and reading
tweets from others.
But that’s just the start.

One of the inspirations for Twitter was the idea of combining Web-based updates with
mobile information. So Twitter makes it possible for mobile phone users to send updates
from their handsets, and in some places to receive them on their handsets, too.
So if user had just agreed a joint venture with a marketing partner while sitting in a bar at a
conference, and user wanted to share the news right away, user could just pull out their
mobile phone and send a quick message to twitter.
Yes, user might have to pay for that SMS message. User wouldn’t pay Twitter. But user
would pay to their mobile phone company . . . for one message.
Twitter will then pass that message on to all of their followers, including by broadcasting
further SMS messages to people who have chosen to receive their updates on their mobiles.
Initially, Twitter footed the bill for that service; later, they negotiated agreements with
companies in the United States, Canada, and India. However, users in the United
Kingdom—where Twitter failed to broker a deal with communication companies—cannot
receive updates by SMS and have to use one of the other mobile services, such as
m.twitter.com or Twitter Berry.
For the rest of us though, Twitter can function as a powerful, low-cost SMS broadcasting
station.
The benefits that can bring can be huge. Researcher mentioned that the Red Cross have
already spotted Twitter’s potential and use the site to provide updates related to ongoing
disasters.
That’s a service that relies on Twitter’s speed, numbers, and mobility.

Figure 4.1 The American Red Cross’s tweets (twitter .com/redcross) provide
information and disaster-related updates.
Red Cross volunteers are able to send an SMS about a new shelter opening or the changing
direction of a brushfire and have lots of people read it at the same time.
But Twitter also brings the benefit of immediate feedback—and that can have tremendous
advantages for individuals.

4.2 The Power of Twitter’s Immediate Feedback
Twitter’s speed means that user can send out an SMS to Twitter from wherever they are
and have lots of people read it immediately. That’s a service that was really meant for fun,
but it’s proven itself to be hugely valuable as a way of asking for help.
In June 2008, Pastor Carlos Whittaker (twitter.com/loswhit), Service Programming

Director at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia, found he stuck at the airport in Dallas and
was told he would have to wait six hours for the next flight. Tired and not too happy at the
thought of spending a night on the airport floor, he sent a tweet about his predicament.
Within just two minutes, he had received seven e-mails, three phone calls, and a huge
number of tweets. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)
In April 2008, for example, James Buck (twitter.com/jamesbuck), a journalism student at

the University of California at Berkeley, was arrested with his interpreter, Mohammed
Maree, while photographing an anti-government rally in Egypt. Sitting in the police van, he
was able to use his mobile phone to send the one-word message “arrested” to his followers
on Twitter. They immediately alerted the U.S. embassy and his college, which quickly
obtained a lawyer for him. James continued to provide updates about his arrest via Twitter,
and was released the following day, which he announced on Twitter with the word “free.”
His interpreter was less lucky: Maree was held for 90 days, beaten and abused, and was
only released after a hunger strike.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)
Both of those examples relied on Twitter followers taking action outside Twitter. But that’s
not usually where the responses take place.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Twitter isn’t updating friends and family about the
small details of your life. That’s fun, but it only works one way.
Twitter is a two-way communication tool—and that’s very important.
Figure 4.2 the tweet that freed journalism student, James Buck,
From an Egyptian jail.
It means user can ask questions and request help to very specialized problems, and get the
expert advice you need.

4.3 Instant Access
Usually, people will be holding that conversation with friends or customers. But because
Twitter has such a well-educated and professional group of followers, it can also function
as an always-open help centre for just about any subject user can imagine.
Look at people’s Twitter pages and user will see this time and time again.
Hidden among the announcements about the type of music they’re listening to or the work
they’re doing, you’ll see questions
About how to fix this problem, where they can buy that gizmo or even what they should
have for supper. (Twitter users do seem to think about food a lot!)
Some of those questions are a bit silly. Some, though, are very technical, but Twitter can
actually answer them.
If you want to know what that is, don’t ask me; ask someone on Twitter.
So that’s the history and that’s where Twitter came from. It’s an incredibly simple tool that
has already had a massive impact on people’s lives. Growing out of social media sites to
focus on just one tiny action, it’s become hugely popular with some of the world’s smartest
people and highest earners. It’s pulled innocents out of prison and given a lost pastor a
place to sleep.
It’s useful, it’s important, and it can generate earnings for any business, online or offline.
But user has to know how to use it.
Chapter 5

Brand Building with Twitter

5.1 Introduction
Online advertising has really spoiled everyone. Not only can advertisers now finely target
where their ads appear, making sure that they’re only shown to people most likely to find
them interesting, they can also track what happens after those ads go up.
They can measure how many people see the ads, how many clicks on them to learn more,
and most importantly, how many actually buy as a direct result of seeing their commercial.
With that kind of targeting and data, it’s no wonder that Google, with its leading Ad Sense
system, is worth billions of dollars.
But the old advertising system didn’t disappear. Drive down any highway, and you’re still
going to see giant billboards drawing your eye and advertising businesses.
Times Square still has its neon lights, and even TV hasn’t rid television programs of
commercial breaks every 10 minutes.
The Internet might have changed some of the ways that advertising works, but brand-
building is still important. If you want people to know who you are and remember the name
of your business, you have to keep putting it in front of them, and you have to continue to
interact with your buyers.
That’s what traditional advertising has always aimed to do. An advertiser who bought a
radio spot in the 1950s wasn’t expecting to see a spike in sales immediately after his ad
was broadcast. But he was expecting to see his product’s name recognition increase.

Figure 5.1 Southwest Airlines is just one company that uses
Twitter to talk to customers and build a brand.
Customers would become familiar with the product and, over time, as they absorbed the
advertising message, they’d trust it and they’d buy it.
On the Internet, that’s been done with banner ads that keep a product’s name visible at the
top of a Web page, and with campaigns that pay for each 1,000 views rather than for each
click that the ad receives.
And it can be done now with Twitter, too.

Twitter has proven a very valuable branding tool, and it hasn’t been lost on many big
corporations. Just some of the companies you can find on Twitter include Carnival Cruise
Lines (twitter.com/CarnivalCruise), Delta Airlines (twitter.com/deltaairlines), JetBlue
(twitter.com/JetBlue), Dell (twitter.com/Direct2Dell), Amazon (twitter.com/amazondeals),
Forrester (twitter.com/forrester), GM (twitter.com/GMblogs), and my favorite, M&Ms
(twitter.com/msgreen and twitter.com/mmsracing).
All of these companies (or products) are using Twitter to build a loyal following with their
customers and promote their brand. In this chapter, I’ll explain some of the most important
things to bear in mind when you do the same thing for your business.

5.2 Create a Story
At its most basic, branding can simply mean putting the name of a product or a company
where people can see it. That makes the name familiar so that a customer recognizes it on
the shelf.
In practice, of course, branding does much more than that.

It also attaches the product’s name to a story, so that when the customer sees it, he trusts it
and associates with it. It’s that trust and attachment that are key to successful branding and
both start with a story.
Before user begin using Twitter to brand their company then, they first need to think about
what they want that brand to say. Do they want their product to look cool and streetwise,
or luxurious and exclusive? Do they want it be associated with ideas of health and nature,
or would it sell better if customers considered it to be at the peak of technological
development?
Take a look at how competing products sell themselves and decide how users want their
product to appear in the market. Usually, rather than trying to create a brand from scratch,
they will be able to create a variation on a general theme used in their industry.
Internet marketers, for example, might be a pretty mixed bunch, but many of people like to
appear in suits. That shows that while we might spend our days writing Web content and
creating products, they are really traditional business people who broker deals and
negotiate partnerships. They will then try to mark themselves out within that niche with a
brand that represents their own unique personalities.
One product that does a very careful job of creating the right story for its market—and
which also does it through Twitter—is M&Ms. By giving different colored candies different
personalities, Mars, the manufacturer, is able to appeal to different kinds of buyers.

Twitter therefore, has a timeline for green M&Ms (twitter.com/msgreen) which is targeted
towards women, but it also has another timeline “written” by the red M&M
(twitter.com/mmsracing) which associates itself with NASCAR to appeal to men.
Figure 5.2 M&Ms uses two types of brand images on Twitter.

The green M&Ms are more popular.
It’s likely that you already have a good idea of the kind of story you want your brand to
portray. So how can you use Twitter to put that story across?

5.3 Portraying Brand with Company’s Profile
Background of the profile can be a useful way of providing companies followers with more
information than one can squeeze into a bio data.
By creating a sidebar on the left of the page, company can send followers to their other
Web sites, where they might be able to do a range of different things from clicking your ads
to making purchases.
Those are direct results. When company using Twitter to build a brand, though, they don’t
need their followers to type a URL into their browser or make a purchase right away.
Company just want them to remember brand.
That means producing a design that makes company’s brand memorable and that sums up
their company. Southwest Airlines, for example, uses an image of its planes’ tail as its photo
and chose the sky as its background image.
Figure 5.3 M&M’s old Twitter page used the green candy to push
the brand in the run up to Valentine’s Day. Note how they matched
the color scheme and graphics with the subject of the campaign.
See immediately whose page they’re reading and they understand what the company does.
Mars has gone a little further in its branding of M&Ms. Not only did the company create two
pages, but it also changes the pages’ designs so that the brand’s image suits the current
campaign. For Valentine’s Day 2008, for example, the company used Twitter to promote
the idea that green, not red, is the color of love—and that their green candies were symbols
of love too. The profile used a green background with a picture of Eros as a green M&M, and
the company’s Web site linked to the Twitter page, where people could discover “love tips,
quips, and personal appearances.”
It was certainly memorable, and the image alone was enough to help the page to stand out.
But the profile doesn’t have to be spectacular to convey the story of your brand, be
instantly recognizable, and stick in the mind. Whole Foods Market
(twitter.com/wholefoods), for example, simply uses a plain green background to match its
green image and uses its logo as its picture.
That’s very simple—and still very effective.
Figure 5.4 Whole Foods Market goes for green, pure and
Unadulterated, for its Twitter background.

When company are using Twitter for branding, then, their background image is going to be
important. They can choose an image that’s complex and carefully designed—and change it
as they change their marketing—or they can opt for something very simple that still does
the job.
More important is the style company use in their tweets.
5.4 Tweet Style - Creating Value
Clearly, there is a danger for companies using Twitter to communicate with customers and
build their brand. When they put themselves in the public arena, there’s a chance that they
can do more harm than good. Firms that get social media wrong look like interlopers,
uninvited guests who have gate crashed the cool people’s party.
That doesn’t just mean that they’re missing out on all of the opportunities that the social
media site offers. It can also show that the company just doesn’t “get it.” That could have as
negative an effect on their sales as good tweeting can have a positive effect.
There are a few things that the company needs to do to blend in on Twitter and make sure
that the image it’s putting across on the site strikes a chord.
The first thing it needs to do is to be human.
Comcast, for example, takes a huge amount of flack on Twitter. Twitterers are constantly
complaining about the company’s poor phone-based customer service.
No one though seems to be complaining about its Twitter-based customer service at

twitter.com/comcastcares. It’s run by Frank

Figure 5.5 Comcast shows that it cares by giving its tweets a
human face.
Eliason, the “Director of Digital Care for Comcast,” who puts his own picture rather than the
company logo on the bio, includes an e-mail address for people to contact the company, and
broadcasts tweets that look like they’re coming from a Twitterer, not some company rep.
Note how the company puts together a whole bunch of different strategies here:
 It’s chosen a name that doesn’t just reflect the company but that refutes a common
criticism made of the corporation on Twitter.
 It’s used the background image to keep pushing that message home.
 Its tweets are written by a named individual who converses with the company’s
customers, and doesn’t just broadcast messages to them.
 And it follows about the same number of people that follow its tweets to show that
it’s listening as well as talking.

As we’ll see, these are characteristics that appear in the timelines of many other successful
companies on Twitter. They’re also characteristics that are missing from companies that
are really trying to make the most of Twitter . . . and failing.
Like Comcast, BestBuy (twitter.com/gina community) also uses a real person rather than a
logo to front its corporate Twitter page. Unlike Comcast though, BestBuy makes all sorts of
mistakes that serve up a valuable lesson for any business thinking of using Twitter for
branding.
First, the name is wrong. Twitter.com/bestbuy has been taken, but it has no updates, is
following no one, and only has 26 followers. Twitter doesn’t allow cyber squatting and has
been known to take away accounts from individuals who tried to use a company name, so
that URL should be available to BestBuy if they wanted it. It’s possible that there is a good
reason that the company doesn’t want to use twitter.com/bestbuy .
Unless it’s so that no one actually sees the profile picture.
While Frank Eliason looks happy, friendly, and approachable in his image, “Gina” looks like
she’s been locked in a hotel room with a laptop. Worst of all, the tweets themselves consist
of little more than cut-and-pasted statements made in response to alerts of the company
name.
The overall impression isn’t that this is a friendly, helpful company that wants to improve
its customers’ experience, but that this is a company that just doesn’t care.

Figure 5.6 How not to build a brand on Twitter. BestBuy gets
it all wrong with a poor image and creepy tweets.
Having a human—rather than a corporate—presence on Twitter might involve actually

showing a human face in the way that Comcast does. But it will always involve tweeting in
an informal, friendly manner.
Twitter, after all, is a very personal place. It’s a site that asks a personal question and lets
people share their random thoughts with the world at large.
Businesses that tweet like a corporate executive addressing a board meeting will stand out
on the site and scream that they have no idea what they’re doing—or who they’re talking
to.
Starbucks’ (twitter.com/starbucks) timeline, for example, consists mostly of a customer

representative answering questions. The company appears to be using the site as an
extension of its customer service—one very simple corporate use for Twitter. It uses a logo
instead of a personal image, but the employee responsible for managing the account isn’t
afraid to talk about his own personal experiences. They discuss the branches they have
worked at and, of course, their own favourite drinks.

Although it’s clear that this a corporate Twitter account, the tweets are written in a
friendly, laid-back manner that creates the impression that the followers are chatting with
the barista exactly as
Figure 5.6 Starbucks shows that it’s a relaxed place to hang out
with friendly, easygoing tweets.
They might do at the café itself—and that the café itself is a friendly, relaxed place to be.
That’s good branding.

So company’s tweets should be friendly. They have to sound like they’re coming from a real
person, another member of the Twitter community, not from some creepy company that’s
listening out for a mention of their name.
But what should those tweets say to build a brand image that’s positive and memorable?
In practice, corporate tweets that try to build brands tend to fall into four broad categories:
 Company news
 Customer support
 Feedback
 Special offers

NEWS
Including some carefully chosen news posts can have a positive branding effect. They
reward the follower with useful information and they also show that the company is
enthusiastic about what it’s doing.
That enthusiasm can be infectious.
Clearly, company have to be careful to make sure that they are broadcasting the right kind
of news and that they are doing it in the right way.
People wouldn’t care unless that information actually affected them. If the clinic had
changed its phone number or fired their doctor, then they had wanted to know. If it’s
changed its design, you probably wouldn’t want to know.
On Twitter, that rule still holds to some degree. News announcements that affect the reader
are always going to be the most interesting. But even an announcement that a company has
changed its blog design or squished another bug in its program can be interesting if it looks
like gossipy fun.
The best way to handle news for branding, then, is to mix it in with other kinds of content
and to add a personal comment so that it sounds like it’s coming from a real person, not
from a company.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Customer support on Twitter is often seen by companies as the only reason to use the site.
Once they have someone twittering away and answering questions, they feel that they’ve
done their job and that there’s nothing else to do.
That’s a big mistake.

It’s not just a mistake because doing it badly—like Best Buy—can actually put people off.
It’s a mistake because good customer service itself can be good branding.
It shows that the company is available to anyone who needs their help and that it listens
too.
Figure 5.7 Sarah from The Home Depot’s corporate

communications department shows off the company’s
customer service.
The Home Depot (twitter.com/thehomedepot) does this very, very well. Their tweets offer
short seasonal tips to keep people reading but their real strength is the quality of its
customer support. Even though one Twitter account can only address a fraction of the
questions the company’s customers are going to have, the impression it creates is that
followers will find even better help at the store itself.

That’s exactly what branding should do: make potential customers feel that the real thing is
even better.
Include great customer service tweets in your timeline—tweets that address problems and
tell people exactly where they can find solutions—and you’ll add one important
characteristic to your branding story.
FEEDBACK
Feedback tweets are similar to customer service tweets, but with an important difference.
Customer service tweets are likely to be initiated by the customer. Instead of sitting on a
phone line for half an hour wondering whether they should press 1, press the pound key, or
hurl the phone at the wall, a customer can send a quick direct message to a company rep on
Twitter and receive a response.
The customer gets the answer he or she needs almost right away. The company gets to help
one customer and show lots of other customers that it’s helpful, friendly, and keen to lend a
hand. But not all customer service comments are sent as direct messages or even as replies
to tweets on the company’s own timeline.
Often they’re just comments—usually rant—on their own timeline. A company looking to
use Twitter for branding can spot those tweets through alerts and react to them in the hope
that it can stop negative publicity from spreading.
That’s not always possible, but it does show that the company cares and that even if it’s not
perfect, it is trying to improve. That can be an important part of a brand image too.
Feedback, though, isn’t just about listening to what people are saying about your company.
It can also mean inviting people to say something about your company. Starbucks has a
second Twitter account (twitter.com/mystarbucksidea) that supports its My Starbucks
Idea Web site

Figure 5.8 MyStarbucksIdea gives customers feedback and
shows that the coffee chain is listening.
(mystarbucksidea.force.com). The site lets customers send in their proposals to improve

the company and see how they’re implemented.
The Twitter timeline allows the company to thank the customers for their ideas and explain
what’s happening to them. It’s a great way for the company to show that it sees itself as just
one part of the Starbucks community—even if it doesn’t produce immediate, direct sales.

SPECIAL OFFERS
Special offers are standard marketing practice and, can work on Twitter as well as
anywhere else. Reward followers for reading your tweets by giving those exclusive deals
that they feel they can’t get anywhere else, and you’ll give them an incentive to keep
reading.
Even an online publisher could do this by mentioning a great deal being offered by one of
its affiliates. Include either their affiliate link in the code or link back to your Web page, and
they could well generate some useful commissions.
Companies using Twitter for branding, though, have to be a little careful with the way they
use special offers. While discounts can be a very powerful way to drive customers to take
immediate action, branding doesn’t demand action. It simply requires the follower to keep
reading and to think about the company in a certain way.
If company make lots of special offers, their customers won’t be thinking about the
company as a trusted friend that always delivers quality goods and services—they’ll see it
as a corporation keen to push its products.
Those special offers start to look like a hard sale, and hard selling doesn’t work on Twitter.
If company want to make immediate, direct sales through Twitter, then regular special
offers could be very effective. If they want to use the site to build a brand and create a
community around their firm, then special offers should be scattered throughout their
timeline just to reward their followers and keep them interested.
There’s no golden rule about how many promotions is too many. It all depends on what
else company saying and who’s following that company.

5.5 Repetition
To keep tweets on message, though, company will have to repeat them.

One of the challenges of any branding campaign is that the effect is never long-lasting.
That’s why even companies like Coca-Cola have to keep spending millions of dollars every
year to keep their products in the public eye.
When company using Twitter for branding, they don’t have to spend millions of dollars to
keep their market’s attention. They just have to keep sending out tweets.
There are companies that make the mistake of starting a Twitter campaign to promote a
particular product, drop Twitter when the campaign ends and then try to pick it up again
months later. It’s a strategy that can work—if they are not sending out tweets, they are not
bothering anyone, so few followers will block company tweets. But company will lose
momentum and their community can disappear.
When company using Twitter as a branding tool, they need to be tweeting at least once a
day, and ideally far more often than that.
That doesn’t have to be as hard as it sounds.
Chapter 6
Third-Party Tools of Twitter
One of the things that really makes Twitter fun is that it comes with lots of optional add-
ons. Twitter allows programmers to write applications that anyone can use and that extend
the power of the service.

Some of them are a little odd. But some of them are extremely helpful. For example, there
are all sorts of applications that let user send and follow tweets without opening the
browser.
6.1 Tweet Later
Follow someone on Twitter and there’s a good chance that they’ll follow user back in
return. It’s not guaranteed, but it does happen a lot and it’s why one strategy to pick up
followers is to do a lot of following.
The reason it happens a lot is that reciprocal following looks like good manners. If
someone’s following any user, then it only seems right he should follow them back. As the
researcher’s seen, that might not be the smartest move—it can make user look like a
spammer, and
Figure 6.1 TweetLater lets you schedule your tweets in advance.
he can’t possibly follow everyone on a long list closely—but many people do it anyway. And
one reason they do it is that it’s easy. TweetLater (www.tweetlater.com) lets user set up

auto follows. Whenever someone follows him, user will automatically follow them in
return. That can be a pretty neat trick but it’s not the service’s main function.
The biggest reason for using TweetLater is that it lets user to set up tweets in advance—a
bit like an auto responder. That really can be valuable.
It means that user can keep the timeline ticking over even while he is sleeping, working his
day job, or spending the weekend with the kids. The user wouldn’t want to create a false
impression on the timeline by preparing tweets that say he is hard at work on a blog post
while in fact he is relaxing at a spa, but he can prepare some random thoughts and other
tweets to keep him timeline active. Best of all, he can use TweetLater to prepare a series of
tweets that lead up to a link he wants his followers to click through.
TweetLater is free and available atwww.tweetlater.com, but someone might also want to
check out Twittertise (www.twittertise.com). This does almost exactly the same thing, but
also lets user sees the number of click through on links that you insert into the tweet.

6.2 Twitterific
Twitter might have been designed with mobiles in mind, but it was never very mobile-
friendly. Fortunately, developers have come up with some pretty cool alternatives.
Twitterific is a Twitter client that sits on a Mac’s desktop. It shows tweets from user’s
followers and lets user tweet back in return. The interface is attractive and fun, and the
program means user doesn’t have to work with his Twitter page open in his browser.
Figure 6.2 Twitterific
Best of all, Twitterific is also available for the iPhone. It even comes with a mini browser so
that user doesn’t lose his timeline every time he clicks a link, and it lets followers see where
user is.
It’s a very neat solution for Twitterers on the move. Twitterific is available for download
from Icon Factory at http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific. The free version is
funded by ads, but user can get an ad-free version for $14.95.

6.3 Twhirl
Twitterific is very cool and a neat solution for iPhone users (and Tweetie, available from
the iPhone app store, is great too). Owners of other types of mobile phones can try
TwitterMail
(www.twittermail.com) for e-mail–enabled phones; Cellity (www.cellity.com) for Java-
enabled phones; and Twitter Berry (www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/) for
BlackBerry phones.
For desktop Twitterers, Twitterific is also limited: it only works on the Mac. PC users have
to look elsewhere for a Twitter client. Many of them look to Seesmic’s Twhirl.
Like Twitterific, Twhirl frees Twitterers from Twitter’s Web page, letting them send and
receive tweets from an attractive, instant message-style client. It’s packed with all sorts of
other useful
Figure 6.3 Twhirl

goodies too, such as automatic short URLs, search, and image posting to TwitPic. It’s built
on Adobe AIR, so user’ll have to download that first, but both are free and available from
www.twhirl.org.

6.4 Twitterfeed
Figure 6.4 Twitterfeed
As a way of adding one particular type of content to timeline of user, Twitterfeed can be
very useful. But do bear in mind that the price user is paying for the ease of providing blog
updates through Twitter is a loss of the personal touch. If user’s blog is hugely popular,
user can get away with a Twitterfeed timeline dedicated solely to informing followers of
him latest posts. For most people, though, Twitterfeed’s updates become just one kind of
tweet—but one that they can set up and leave.

6.5 Twist
Figure 6.5 Twist
There are a number of different services that allow Twitterers to keep track of the
popularity of various topics and keywords on Twitter. Some use a frequently updated tag
cloud to show relative popularity, but someone like the graphs on Twist. It is accurate and
detailed; user can make comparisons between different terms, and even see samples of the
tweets he is examining.
It can be a very useful way to make sure that user is targeting the most popular terms and
look for other people Twittering about user’s topic, And it looks very neat too. Use it at
twist.flaptor.com.

6.6 Twellow
Twist can help in finding people with similar interests to user’s own, but Twellow makes it
all much, much easier. Run by WebProNews, it’s supposed to be a kind of Yellow Pages of
social media, but it operates more like a Twitter Yahoo!
The site tracks conversations on Twitter and places the Twitterers behind them into
various categories. Click one of those categories and user will be able to see a list of suitable
Twitterers.
Figure 6.6 Twellow
Complete with sample tweet, bio, image, and the number of their followers.
For Twitterers looking for interesting and useful people to follow, it’s a fantastic resource.
And clearly, for Twitterers who want to be followed, it’s hugely valuable too.
Once user starts sending tweets, he should find that he is been added automatically, but if
he can’t find his name on the site, he can add it himself. In any case, it’s certainly worth
checking the categories that user has been listed under and self-editing them if necessary.
Keep Twellow close by at www.twellow.com.

6.7 TweetBeep
Twellow tells you who tends to talk about what, but you’ll also want to know who’s talking
about your topics now.
Figure 6.7 TweetBeep
TweetBeep, which as we’ve seen sends out regular alerts whenever a keyword is used on
Twitter, is really a must for anyone thinking about marketing through microblogging.
Remember that tracking your username or your company name and diving right into a
conversation can look a little creepy. If you see someone has mentioned you, it’s often a
good idea to follow them before replying.
You can set up your alerts at tweetbeep.com.

6.8 TwitterCounter
There’s one more useful matrix user might want to know when he is looking for people to
follow—and when he wants to know how he is doing, too—and that’s the rate of follower
growth.
When user is tracking his own tweets and their results, he should have those figures
handy, but when user looks at someone else’s profile, there’s no way of knowing whether
they picked up all of their followers a year ago or whether their tweets are still generating
interest.
TwitterCounter lets user to see anyone’s follower numbers over time. Just toss a name into
the site and he will receive a graph showing how the follower numbers have risen and
fallen over the last week.
Figure 6.8 TwitterCounter

6.9 Tweet Deck
Twitter’s strength is its simplicity. Short posts, short replies, and quick conversations make
for a service that’s simple to use. But it’s also very limited. It’s not easy to keep track of
conversations, for example. User will be holding multiple chats with multiple followers
Figure 6.9 TweetDeck
all at the same time and often on different topics. As one tweet comes in, the last one will be
pushed down the list, making it difficult to follow the course of an exchange. Nor does
Twitter allow user to group tweets and followers according to subject. TweetDeck lets user
to do that.
This service really is a must-have for anyone with a large list of followers. User can create
multiple columns and group them according to topics. It’s the closest user is likely to get to
Face book’s groups.

6.10TwitThis
TwitThis isn’t exactly a Twitter application, but it’s certainly useful nonetheless and should
be a basic tool for any Twitter-based marketer.
All of us probably seen all the buttons at the bottom of blog posts urging people to Digg the
article or send it to Stumble Upon.
Figure 6.10 TwitThis
With TwitThis, user can also ask them send a URL of the page together with a brief
description to their Twitter followers. It’s a simple and effective way to help user’s blog or
Web site make the most of Twitter’s viral power.
These are just 10 of the most useful tools that I’ve found for Twitter. There are plenty of
others, and new ones are coming out every day with better interfaces, more features, and
neater designs.
You can have hours of fun downloading them and trying them out until you create the
toolkit that works best for you. Because many of them are fairly similar, much comes down
to personal taste.

On the whole though, the toolkit should contain applications that let user find people to
follow, track keywords, organize the followers, and tweet and reply easily. Those are the
basics.
In addition, some companies have begun experimenting with using Twitter as an

advertising channel. Magpie (www.be-a-magpie.com) inserts targeted ads into the timeline,
and Twittad (www.twittad.com) allows Twitterers to turn their background images into
advertising billboards onto which companies can place their own ads.
While both of these programs look interesting, both have problems. Twitterers who use
Magpie have no control over the ads that appear, and it’s not yet clear whether followers
will accept ads in timelines. Twittad means losing what could be the most important
branding tool, and with prices that range from $20 a week for a timeline with 259 followers
to $45 for a timeline with more than 7,500 followers, you’ll probably be better off putting
user’s own links on the background.

6.11TwitPwr.com
If user pastes a long URL into a tweet, Twitter will automatically create a Tiny URL to
shorten it. However, there are many other sites that one can use to shorten his own URLS.
TwitPwr.com not only shortens URLS, but also provides a unique Twitter tool that has viral
appeal.
Not only are all clicks through your TwitPwr URLs tracked, but accounts are ranked to
show their power. The premise is that true Twitter power is not to be judged by the
number of followers, but rather by the influence the account holder has over the followers.
Figure 6.11 TwitPwr.com
One Twitterer may have 10,000 followers and 50 people follow a link he or she tweets. But
another may have 1,000 followers and 75 people follow a tweeted link. Which is the more
powerful Twitterer?
TwitPwr.com adds a unique twist to creating and tracking URLs that is sure to bring out
competitive behaviour in more than just a few Twitter users.

Chapter 7
Indian Companies on Twitter - A Usage Study

7.1 Introduction
Social Media is the latest buzz word in the internet world. Everything around us over
internet is turning social, and internet users now have social media stalwarts like YouTube,
Facebook and Twitter as new-age internet heroes. While everywhere social media is being
touted as next stage of evolution over internet.
By-and-large most of us would agree with that Social media is still in a nascent stage in the
Indian context and there is a lot that remains to be explored in the Social media space.
Having said that the ripples in the social media wave created by many Indians involved are
ensuring that Social Media is taken to the next level.
7.2 Social Networking in India – Milestone @2009
By all means, 2009 is a milestone for social networking, especially for Internet-devoid-and-
chatty citizens of India. Most of homegrown social networks took the back seat and the
ones to survive are driven by media companies.
Expectedly, Orkut / Facebook ruled the charts (the gap), but Twitter is the one who will
potentially disrupt the social networking game in India.
Graph 1 : social networking sites in India - 2009 traffic (Source: Comscore Inc).

Twitter’s explosive growth in 2009 is being reinforced by the tool being embraced by
Indian media.
Indian media missed the blogging bus, and they couldn’t afford to miss the micro blogging
one. Apart from integrating their news rss feed with Twitter, what’s really happening is
that media celebrities (and of course, bollywood celebrities) are using the new channel to
share their candid opinion bypassing the BS surrounding journalism (and the need to stay
neutral).
Nevertheless, what’s really happening in the entire process is that Twitter is getting all
sorts of media attention (news channels keep promoting their twitter channel) and is being
introduced to layman (at least there is curiosity about the tool).
Most importantly, the always-on-access via sms (e.g. Airtel twitter partnership) is where
user will see Twitter beating the heck out of Orkut, when it comes to engagement and
attention.

7.3 Twitter and Indian companies
What seemed like chirps from birds some years back has now become an integral part of
the daily lives. Such has been the impact of ‘Twitter’ that everybody in Indian
environment, ranging from the common man to celebrities has become an integral user. In
India, Twitter usage picked up slowly, but today India ranks in the list of top 10 countries in
terms of twitter users.
Source – http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/geography
(Fig 1: % usage of twitter in different country)
The growth of Twitter has spurred beyond leisure usage and now everyone is witnessing
brands embracing the medium and engaging in meaningful business-specific conversations
through this channel. Whether it is B2B or B2C, there are many companies out there which
are using twitter for reasons like brand-building, marketing, staying connected with
customers, taking their feedback etc.

This study presents a brief summary about the ‘Indian businesses’ that have established
presence on ‘Twitter’ & also underlines the purpose/s for which they are using it. The
study was conducted with a reason to demonstrate the value aspect of twitter as a micro-
blogging tool when used by a brand. To conduct this study the researchers have selected
few brands from different industry verticals.
7.4 Observation Criterion:

The respective Twitter account profiles and the tweets were observed on the following
parameters –
Quantitative
• Joining date (date on which account was created)
• Number of tweets (volume)
• Last tweet date
• No. of followers / No. of following/ No. of lists
• No. of Retweets and reply via @
Qualitative
• Conversation type (one-way, two-way)
• Tweet type (Informational, Retweets, Conversational@)
The cut-off criterion for selection was Brands with

• Minimum 100 followers
• Activity period spanning for minimum 1 month
• At least 50 tweets

7.5 Key Findings:
A blueprint sketch, circa 2006, by Jack Dorsey, envisioning an SMS-based social network

Before starting this report, the assumption was that the bulk of brands would be using
twitter as a broadcasting platform. From the nature of the tweets, it becomes evident that
several brands are focused towards the ‘conversational’ aspects with emphasis towards
customer-service.
The leader-board is as follows: How did they fare?

Most active account – MSN India with 38,857 tweets
Most followed brand– MTV India 60,560 followers
Most conversational brand – ICICI Bank
Most Re-tweeted brand – Tata docomo
Oldest brand – Bookmyshow.com (Present since October 2007)
Top Inactive Brands – Acer India (Inactive since November) & Apollo hospitals
The most tweets are made by a news brand, MSN India with almost 40,000 tweets. MSN
India’s twitter account is setup using twitter-feed which automates the tweets from the
news site every time it is published. MTV India is the most followed brand, showcasing
its popularity amongst the youth and also the fact that India’s twitter audience
comprises of youngsters.
ICICI Bank is the most conversational brand on twitter and is primarily using it for
responding to queries from both current & prospect customers.
In fact, it won’t be surprising to see other banks joining twitter to engage with their
customers. One classic example of how banks can use twitter is through Bank of
America’s twitter account http://twitter.com/bofa_he. They maintain complete
transparency for their customers and their profile also shows the employees who are
managing the twitter account.

Top Inactive Brands
However, not all the brands have been able to use the medium in the right way. One
classic example of that is Acer India’s twitter account which has been inactive since
November 2009. The other prominent profile is that of Apollo Hospitals who haven’t
posted a single tweet since July 2009.
Airtel Broadband’s case
Airtel Broadband had marked its presence on twitter with its account impatient ones.
However, after some initial tweets the account was inactivate, starting from period of
June 2009 and at the beginning of this year the account was surprisingly deleted.
Despite the research, the real reasons for the deletion of the account are not known.

7.6 Twitter Applications
7.6.1 Customer service
Twitter is a fantastic tool for resolution of customer problems, not only is it fast but it
also provides cost advantages for businesses when compared with other methods like
phone etc. Through Twitter when the company staff, provides replies to customers, it
creates a positive image for the entire brand.
Dell India has a twitter account to handle customer queries related to showroom info,
personal computer details, computer shipment and payment details info. Dell’s India
account is in-line with the computer manufacturer’s global initiatives. Dell has a
dedicated section of its website, www.dell.com/twitter that provides details of the
name and purpose of its more than 30 different feeds.
(Fig 7.2: Dell India twitter page)
ICICI Bank offers support through twitter to their banking customers. There are

customers who are frustrated with the bank’s service and haven’t received support
through conventional methods. For such cases, ICICI Bank is constantly monitoring
tweets to address concerns with Net Banking, transaction charges, problems with debit
card.
(Fig 7.3. ICICI bank twitter page)

7.6.2 News Broadcast
In India, the use of twitter as a news streaming source was widely realized during the Mumbai
terrorist attacks in 2008 Companies like Kotak cards are posting updates of the company and
industry news to discuss it and with their twitter followers.
(Fig 7.4. Kotak cards twitter page)
7.6.3 Promotion & Buzz

Organizations have started adapting twitter to showcase their latest offerings, promote product
launches, discounts & contests etc. There are specific campaigns around twitter where users
win free prizes for using the company’s name in tweet hash tags.
Nokia Music India uses twitter to promote album & latest mobile phone launches in the Nokia
music store. They regularly conduct twitter contests to drive user participation.
The twitter account of Colours TV channel is synched with Facebook and their tweets are about
promotion of new shows & user-reactions to reality show eliminations.
(Fig7.5. Nokia & Colours twitter page)

7.7 How Indian Companies Use Twitter
Illustrations
Customer Service (Tata Photon)
Consumer Recommendations (SuKam)
Community Feedback (Cafe Coffee Day)

Company/Industry Updates (Infosys)
Product Promotion (Samsung Mobiles)

7.8 The Road Ahead:
Twitter’s penetration in organizations will continue to increase on both sides of the

spectrum. Conversations between users and brands which are managed by humans with an
emotional quotient would continue to thrive. It also implies that the focus would lessen on
one-way broadcasts where twitter accounts simply translate into monotonous RSS feeds.
More companies will start using twitter for conducting market research, listening to users
and keeping a track on the competition.
Chapter 8
Questionnaire Analysis

8.1 ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE
1) Do you have account in any social media networking sites?
Particulars Frequency Percent
yes 490 98.0
no 10 2.0
Total 500 100.0
[Table 8.1.1 Social Networking A/C]
Social Media Account
no
2%
yes
98%
[Graph 8.1 Social Media A/c]
Interpretation:
From the above given pie-chart the researchers can say that the 98% of the respondents
are having their account opened in to any of the social networking sites. The increasing
interests towards the social networking sites have been verified with this statistics. Only

2% of the respondents are not having their account opened up in the social networking
sites.
The higher interests of the internet users towards the social networking sites have created
the new avenues for the marketers to enhance their brand image and equity. The concept
of the affiliate marketing has emerged out of increased popularity of social media
networking sites.
2) Which are those sites of social networking?
500
445 435
450
400
350
300 285
270
250
200
150
105
100
55 45
50
0
Face book Orkut Twitter My space LinkedIn Buzz Other
No Of User
[Graph 8.2 No of users]
Interpretation:
This question was only to those that had answered yes on the question – “Do you have
account in any social media networking sites?”
From the bar-graph given above it is clear that the face-book has the highest no of users
from the respondents. The no of respondents, who are having face book account are 445
out of 500.
The Orkut stood second in terms of the no of respondents having their account on it. The no
of respondents are 435. The 2nd position of Orkut shows the increasing popularity of face-
book among the Indian social networking site users.
The twitter comes third by no of accounts which is 285 out of 500.Twitter was launched in
2006 ,and started gaining popularity during last 2 years. That clearly shows twitter is
witnessing a mind-blowing traffic growth world-wide and India is no exception. So if you
are a social media marketer “You just can’t ignore the twitter any more”.
The linked in has 270 no of respondents, which is equally popular but amongst executives
and professionals, followed by buzz which has 105 no of respondents.
3) Which social media do you use the most?
Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulative

Particulars y Percent Percent
30 6.0 6.0 6.0

all of above ticked & 5 1.0 1.0 7.0
messenger
All of them 5 1.0 1.0 8.0
All which i have 5 1.0 1.0 9.0
accounts in
Face book 15 3.0 3.0 12.0
facebook 225 45.0 45.0 57.0
Facebook and Twitter 5 1.0 1.0 58.0
facebook n twitter 5 1.0 1.0 59.0
facebook, buzz 5 1.0 1.0 60.0
facebook,orkut 5 1.0 1.0 61.0
facebook,orkut,twitter 5 1.0 1.0 62.0
Facebook/Twitter 5 1.0 1.0 63.0
gmail 5 1.0 1.0 64.0
Internet 10 2.0 2.0 66.0
internet sites/orkut 5 1.0 1.0 67.0
Linkedin 10 2.0 2.0 69.0
None in particular 5 1.0 1.0 70.0
orkut 95 19.0 19.0 89.0
orkut & linkedin 5 1.0 1.0 90.0
orkut, face book 5 1.0 1.0 91.0
twitter 45 9.0 9.0 100.0
Total 500 100.0 100.0
[Table 8.1.2 Most Social Media Usage]
Interpretation:
Our main purpose behind asking this question was to know about the likability amongst
the no of accounts respondent hold. From the above given table it is clear that Face book is
the most likable social media networking site among the users. The reasons behind this
might be the no of applications, games, various interesting tests etc.

4) How much time in a week are you spending on social media networking?
Time Frequency Percent
<1 hour 50 10.0
1-3 hour 152 30.4
3-5 hour 68 13.6
5-7 hour 65 13.0
>7 hour 155 31.0
Total 490 98.0
[Table 8.1.3 Social Media Frequency]
Time Spend On Social Media
152 155
68 65
50
<1 hour 1-3 hour 3-5 hour 5-7 hour >7 hour
[Graph 8.3 Social Media Frequency]
Interpretation:
The amount of time spent on social media sites by the Indian users is critical aspect
of our study. This directly leads towards to the behavior of users on social
networking. 31% of the total no of respondents are spending more than 7 hours a
week on social networking. From this it is evident that the users are roughly

spending an hour on daily basis for doing social networking. That clearly suggest the
amount of time users spend communicating online has risen significantly.
Social networking has become such an essential part of people’s lives nowadays.
5) Do you own a hand-held device from which internet is accessible?
HandHeld Device
Out of the 500 respondents 54% are
having handheld device eg. PDA, i-phone,
other smart phones from which the
no
yes internet was accessible and 46% of the
46%
54% respondents are not having this kind of
internet enabled hand-held device.
[Graph 8.4 Hand-held device]
6) If yes, do you access internet from that device?
Out of 270 respondents who are having Internet_Access

internet enabled handheld device 82% are
actually accessing internet. no
While, rest 18% of the internet enabled 18%
handheld device holder are not utilizing
the internet facility from their device.
That shows substantial no of users are
yes
utilizing the facility of Internet from their 82%
device.
[Graph 8.5 Internet access]

7) For what purpose do you access the internet from that device?
Purpose Of Internet From Hanheld Device

220
180 175
80
65 60
45
[Graph 8.6 Purpose of internet from hand-held device]
Interpretation:
Here the researchers have found out interesting result out of the 222 users who are
accessing the internet through their handheld device 220 users are using it for
checking E-mails.
The second most activity done by the user are for the checking various information.
180 respondents have checked this option.
The surfing through the handheld device stood third by 175 respondents agreed to
it. Only 65 out of the 222 respondents are using micro blogging services from their
handheld device.
Almost 80 respondents are carrying their e-commerce transaction in form of online
banking and shopping through their handheld device.
The proportion of respondents who are updating and following micro blogs and
downloading music are very low in comparison of others. They are only 65.

So, there is a huge potential lies for the telecom service operators to provide this
kind of service by coming up with a lucrative plans.
8) Do you use twitter?
Twitter user Frequency
yes 285
no 215
Total 500
[Table 8.1.4 Twitter Users]
TWITTER USER
no
43%
yes
57%
[Graph 8.7 Twitter usage]
Interpretation:
Out of the 500 respondents 57% are having their account opened up in twitter,
while 43% are not having their account opened up with the twitter.
The results show that the lack of proper awareness of twitter to the youth.

Though the 43% of user are not having their account with the twitter, the twitter in
recent times has started to grow. The recent results of twitter are showing that it
has grown to a level of 1444% (source: A.C. Nielsen) over last year. Surely the
twitter is now in the main stream of all social media networking sites.

Twitter user profile:
Category Frequency Percent
UG 40 14.0
Graduate 105 36.8
Post 140 49.1

graduate
Total 285 100.0
[Table 8.1.5 Education]
Male 160 56.1
Female 125 43.9
Total 285 100.0
[Table 8.1.6 GENDER]

Full-time 50 17.5
professional
Business 40 14.0
man
Student 110 38.6
Service 60 21.1
Unemployed 25 8.8
Total 285 100.0
[TABLE 8.1.7 OCCUPATION]
18-24 130 45.6
25-35 105 36.8
Above 50 17.5
35
[Table 8.1.7 AGE]
The profile the twitter users among the respondents are as shown in the table sequentially
Education, Gender, Age and Occupation wise.
The various hypotheses related to the usage of twitter and its related demographics have been
stated in the chapter of analysis of hypotheses.

9) How often do you log on to a twitter in a day?
No of login Frequency
Once 170
Twice 30
Thrice 25
More than four 60

times
Total 285
[Table 8.1.9 LOGIN FREQUECY]
Login Frequency of twitter
More
than four
times
21%
Thrice
9%
Once
60%
Twice
10%
[Graph 8.8 login frequency]
Interpretation:
Answer to this question suggest the usage pattern of the twitter user .Out of 285
only 60% of the respondents are logging in only once, 10% are logging in twice
10% are logging in twice,9% are logging in thrice, 21% are logging more than four
times. The twitter has been designed to be in real-time touch with the world.
According to the Numbers obtained, yet the usage pattern of twitter is not

happening what was planned when it was launched or the kind application
happening in other countries.
10) Do you use twitter as an alternative mode of communication technology (e.g.

sms, chat etc.)?
Alternative mode Of Out of the entire twitter user only 37%

Communication of the user uses twitter as an alternative
mode of communication.
The rest of the users think that it cannot
yes
37% be replaced by the existing mode
communications, which are sms and
no
63% other Instant messaging software.
They are using twitter as other social
media networking sites.
[Graph 8.9 Alternative mode of communication]
11) Are you ready to spend extra money for getting the twitter service on your
mobile phone?
To gain the
Ready to spend extra-
insights about whether twitter users
money
are ready to spend extra amount for yes
getting the benefits of the twitter 12%
service as a whole. The kind of
response , 88% said no and only 12%
said yes ,shows that they are
considering twitter along with the
other social media ,wherein the no
Internet access suffice the purpose.
88%
[Graph 8.10 ready to spend extra money]

12) What is the purpose of twitting?
Purpose Of Twitting
Other 45
Passing time 125
Work related tweets 95
Sharing new information 190
Connected with friend 175
0 50 100 150 200
[Graph 8.11Purpose of tweeting]
Interpretation:
To find out the basic motivation behind doing twitting the researchers have asked
this question. It is clear from the statistics that 190 out of 285 users are sharing
new information with each other using the twitter.
Connecting with friends is also important motivation behind twitting, which is
evident from the 175 respondents out of 285 have selected this option.
For killing the time there are 125 respondents who are twitting.
95 out of 285 users are twitting for the work related matters. As, twitter is an
excellent platform to be remain connected with world , they can share real time
problems and get the solution immediately.
Initially the social media was considered as an entertainment platform, but results
of twitting purposes are showing that the trend is moving towards more serious talk
like sharing new information ,work related tweets etc.

Now if we look at the occupation and sharing new information crosstab in the
following table and bar graph.
[Table 8.1.10 Cross-tab of Occupation v/s Information]
Sharing new information Total
Unchecked Checked
Full-time professional 15 35 50
Business man 15 25 40
Student 25 85 110
Service 25 35 60
Unemployed 15 10 25
Total 95 190 285
[Graph 8.12 cross-tab of occupation v/s information sharing]

Interpretation:
The results show that 77% of the students are sharing information with each-other
and that is how they are keeping themselves updated. Out of the full time
professional who are twitter user 70% are sharing new information regarding their
fields, new development, new opportunities etc.
Out of the service class respondents of twitter user 62% are sharing new
information with each other.

13) What do you tweet about?
Very Often Neutral Less Very WAM

often Less
Private Stuff (What I am doing?)/ Status 25 105 65 30 60 3.86
Thoughts & Feelings I am undergoing 25 105 45 55 55 3.54
Links of various websites / resources 50 90 60 35 50 3.19
Work related tweets 35 50 65 65 70 2.7
Comments /@ tweets 45 120 60 25 35 3.4
News/Updates 60 85 65 45 30 3.35
Photos 0 40 65 65 115 2.1
[Table 8.1.11 Tweeting Subject]
What do you tweet about?

Photos 2.1
News/Updates 3.35
Comments /@ tweets 3.4
Work related tweets 2.7
Links of various websites / resources 3.19
Thoughts & Feelings I am undergoing 3.54
Private Stuff (What I am doing?)/ Status 3.86
[Graph 8.13 tweeting subject]

Interpretation:
To get the information about what user are generally twitting the researchers has asked
this question. To every option weights has been assigned in the descending order starting
from 5 to 1 and then weighted average mean has been calculated.
According to WAM the most frequent twitting is about the private stuff (What I am doing?)
like activities of routine life . The WAM assigned to this is 3.86 .Most of the celebrities e.g.
Chetan Bhagat ,Shashi Tharur are sharing their routine life on twitter starting from good
morning to good night .
The second no of twitting is about the Thoughts and feelings I am undergoing having WAM
3.54 Most of the users are many times writing about their own feeling and thoughts of
particular organization, political party, country, friends etc.
The comments /@ tweets and News /Updates are almost on the same position having their
WAM 3.4 and 3.35 respectively. It is evident from this figures that those who are using
twitter regularly are using it as News channel or service.
The last frequent activity done by users are sharing their photographs with the friends, the
application twitpic is interesting but might be due to the constraints of internet speed on
mobile and lack awareness about this preventing many users to explore this application.
It’s interesting to note that the results aren’t skewed towards any specific usage area. And
that means, Twitter is still being experimented for different reasons.

14) I would like to follow tweets of …
Particulars Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Celebrities 121 42.5 42.5 42.5
Politicians 54 18.9 18.9 61.4
Business persons 76 26.7 26.7 88.1
others 34 11.9 11.9 100.0
Total 285 100.0 100.0
[Table 8.1.12 Person’s Tweet]
Type of person's tweets

121
76
54
34
Celebrities Politicians Business persons others
[Graph 8.14 Person’s Tweet to be followed]
Interpretation:
Recently in India twitter is gaining its popularity, one of the main reasons behind that is
various renowned celebrities, business tycoons, entrepreneurs, famous politicians and
other field experts are having their account on the twitter.

Celebrities as expected by the researcher has got the largest amount of response, which
is 42.5% . The second largest no of response is obtained by the business persons which
is 26.7% , the application of twitter like @exectweet allows the interested user to follow
the CEOs , MDs, chairman of the various organization . Around 19% of the user are also
wanted to follow Politicians .The reason behind this in recent times the politicians like
shashi tharoor has huge fan followers .The tweeter also allows the politicians to stay
connected with the people ,voters of their constituency .
In general, celebrity, business persons and politicians have major influenced on the
people, which create opportunity for the marketers to promote their services and
products.

15) Would you like to follow tweets of any company / organization?
Response Frequency
yes 235
no 50
[Table 8.1.13 Company Follower]
no Organization's Tweets
18%
yes
82%
[Graph 8.15 Organization’s tweets]
Interpretation:
The purpose of the researchers behind asking this question is to gauge interests of the
users for the various organizations.
82% of the respondents have replied affirmative while 18% of the respondents have
replied negatively.
The twitter user who has showing the readiness to follow the organization on twitter are
amongst the right group of people towards which the company has to direct its marketing
efforts. This is the main reason why many of the famous brands are having their account
opened up in the twitter.

16) What kind of companies` tweet would you like to follow on twitter?
Type Of Organization's Tweets

Others 85
Hospitals 40
Stock broking companies 90
IT 160
NGO 40
Electronics 135
Consumer durable 75
Retail 75
FMCG 65
[Graph 8.16 Type of organization’s tweets]
Interpretation:
The IT companies are having maximum no response, which is 160 users want to follow
the tweets of IT company.
The large-scale Indian tech companies are driven by processes and proven
methodologies. They use open conversation social media platforms like Twitter are
certainly very interesting.
E.g. Every third tweet that Microsoft India sends is conversational & is marked with ‘@’
reply. A key reason is that their official twitter account isn’t automated and is managed
by a team of real people.
The second maximum no of response are for Electronic companies, as the respondents
are interested in knowing the new developments in this particular fields, offerings by
the company and the product reviews about the various electronic gadgets.

The third maximum no of responses are for the stock-broking companies, which indeed
due to the fact that respondents want to know about the various tips, call, portfolio
management services etc.
8.1.15.1 Cross- tab of Occupation v/s IT
What is your occupation status * IT Cross tabulation
IT
Unchecked Checked Total
What is your occupation status Full-time professional 20 30 50
Student 45 65 110
Service 30 30 60
Unemployed 15 10 25
Total 125 160 285

 The Highest percentage of the business man would like to follow the IT companies
on the twitter, which is 62.5%
 The second highest no percentage wise is of full-time professionals, which is equal
to 60% which shows their inclination towards to the IT company.
 The third highest no. percentage wise is of the students which are almost equal to
59% of all the student categories. The no. of students is highest in the absolute
terms.
 For the service class people it is 50-50 kind of situation. Half of them would like to
follow but half of them would not like it at all.
8.1.15.2 Cross- tab of Occupation v/s Electronics:
What is your occupation status * Electronics Cross tabulation
Electronics
Unchecked Checked Total
What is your occupation Full-time professional 20 30 50

status
Student 75 35 110
Service 20 40 60
Unemployed 10 15 25
Total 150 135 285

Thus by looking at the table and bar-graph the researcher can infer that the service-class
people would most like to follow the Electronics organization, which is evident from the
statistics of 66% of all the service persons do like to follow tweets of this kind of
organization.
The second highest no. in terms of the percentage is full time professionals, who would like
to follow the service organization. This might be due to the fact they want to keep updating
themselves with the development of this particular kind of industry.
The no of students are 35 out of 110 would like to follow tweets of the electronic company.
This might be due to the fact that students don’t want to get news related updates but they
are more oriented towards the socializing instead of getting this kind of news and other
thing.

17) In future which mode of communication would you prefer from the company
whose products / service you are availing?
Particulars Very Eventually Unlikely

likely
Store-manager 95 120 70
E-mail 190 85 10
Call 135 90 60
Twitter 140 95 50
Blog 110 85 90
[Table 8.1.14 Future Mode of Customer service]
Future Mode of Customer-service

Very likely Eventually Unlikely
Blog 39 29 32
Twitter 49 33 18
Call 47 32 21
E-mail 66 30 4
Store-manager 33 42 25
[Graph 8.17 Future Mode of Customer service]
Interpretation:
 33% think it is very likely that the customer service will not contact them but the Store
manager will handle the complaint. 42% think the store manager would handle the
complaint and the customer service eventually contacts them and slightly more than 25
% think it is unlikely that the store manager would handle the complaint and the
customer service would rather not contact them.

 66% find it very likely that the customer service will contact them via e-mail. 30% say
they eventually contact them via e-mail and 4%think it is unlikely that they receive an
e-mail by the customer service.
 47% think it is very likely that the customer service contacts them via the telephone,
32% think they eventually might call them up and 21% find this unlikely to happen.
 49% think it is very likely that the customer service contacts them via Twitter, 33%
think this eventually might happen and 18% find it unlikely that the customer service
contacts them via Twitter.
 39% find a comment on their blog or an e-mail via their blog very likely, 29% think the
customer service eventually might contact them via their blog and 32% think this is
unlikely to happen.
 Thus from the results the researcher can say that in future people are receptive to the
E-mail customer service and twitter in the future.

18) I would use Twitter more often when…… (Rank 1 is your most likely option
and rank 7 is your most unlikely option)
Ranks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 WAM
Weights 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Interesting 54 96 38 34 35 4 24 3.028
Spare time 23 26 82 53 46 43 12 3.87
Mobile Unlimited 74 93 24 43 25 12 14 2.8

Plan
More Followers 68 25 73 65 30 13 11 3.16
Mobile Internet 39 24 30 34 115 35 8 4.049
More Often 27 13 24 29 7 112 73 5.11

thinking
Not at all 25 8 14 27 27 66 118 5.43
[Table 8.1.15 Response Table of more often usage]
Rank WAM Particulars
1 2.8 I would have a mobile unlimited plan.
2 3.028 I would know something interesting to twit about.
3 3.16 I would have more followers.
4 3.87 I would have spare time
5 4.049 I would have mobile Internet
6 5.11 I would think of it more often
7 5.43 I wouldn‘t. I‘m using it quite extensively
[Table 8.1.16 Rank Table of more often usage]
Interpretation:
This question is applicable to the twitter user, the purpose behind asking this question is to
find out the motivation behind using it more often.

The first rank according to WAM of 2.8 is “mobile unlimited plan” , as twitter is compatible
with any of the mobile phones and its due to its 140 characters limits the respondents want
to have unlimited plan so that they can twit more frequent.
Second rank , researchers have found from the results is “..Something interesting to tweet
about” .That means if the users are having an interesting information about something or
someone, they would like to share it with others using twitter.
Here the researchers has got interesting finding about the reason when the respondents
use twitter more often, “I would have more followers” stood third having WAM of 3.16
.This clearly indicates that increasing in no of followers would directly lead to increasing
the usage frequency because the respondents wanted to share more .
The 4th rank according to WAM of 3.87 is if the respondents are having spare time.
The 5th rank according to WAM of 4.049 is if they are having access to the mobile internet.
The 6th rank according to WAM of 5.11 is if the respondents are thinking about the twitter
more often.
And the last rank according to WAM of 5.43 is the respondents are not ready to use twitter
anymore because they are using twitter quite extensively.

19) Why do not you use twitter?
Particulars Frequency Percent Valid Percent
I am already registered with a social networking site 125 25.0 58.1
I don’t know what to tweet. 30 6.0 14.0
I think it is a waste of time. 15 3.0 7.0
SMS and E-mail is enough. 35 7.0 16.3
I don’t see any use of twitter. 10 2.0 4.7
Total 215 43.0 100.0
[Table 8.1.17 Reason for not using twitter]
Reasons not to use twitter

Series1
140 125
120
100
80
60
30 35
40
15 10
20
0
I am already I dont know I think it is a SMS and E-mail I dont see any
registered with what to tweet. waste of time. is enough. use of twitter.
a social
networking site
[Graph 8.18 Reason for not using twitter]
Interpretation:
This question is only applicable to those who has answered no in the Q-8 , “Do you use twitter?”
Out of 43% who are not the user of the twitter but already associated with any other social
media, 58.1% of the respondents said that they are already registered with the other social
networking site. This clearly shows the lack of interests towards the twitter.

16.3 % of the nonusers are satisfied with the use of SMS and E-mail services .This shows twitter
has not created a different space in their minds apart from the SMS and E-mails, which is
actually not true because twitter is much beyond the SMS and E-mail.
14% of the nonusers don’t know what to tweet, i.e. they are aware about the twitter but due to
lack of knowledge about what to tweet they are not using twitter.
7% of the non users think that twitter is a waste of time.
4.7% of the nonusers don’t see the use of twitter that is why they have not opened up their
account in the twitter.
20) I will create my account in twitter because…
In this open ended question the researcher wanted to know about the drive behind
using the twitter.
Most interesting and important answers the researchers have got are as below:
 It helps me in keeping pace with new technology.

 Try new Social Community.
 I like to update myself regarding the news about the celebrities and new product
launches especially.
 It is a new and interesting way to express oneself.
 It is something different from routine social sites.
21) I will use twitter more if …
In this open ended question the researcher wanted to know about the source of
motivation that makes the user to use twitter.
Most interesting and important answers the researchers have got are as below:
 There is something really important to know.

 I am getting more information on businesses and stock markets.
 It adds more application for entertainment.
 If it offers features which are genuinely new or something which has not already
been covered by others.

Demographics:
1) GENDER:
Category Frequency
Male 285
Female 215
Total 500
[Table 8.1.18 gender]
Gender
Female
43%
Male
57%
[Graph 8.19 Genders]

2) AGE- GROUP:
Category Frequency
Under 18 30
18-24 230
25-29 160
30-34 65
40-44 15
Total 500
[Table 8.1.19 AGE]
Age-Profile
40-44 Under 18
30-34 6%
3%
13%
25-29 18-24
32% 46%
[Graph 8.20 Age]

3) EDUCATION:
Category Frequency
High school 25
Diploma 20
Bachelors degree 195
Masters degree 250
Doctorate degree 5
Law degree 5
Total 500
[Table 8.1.20 Education]
Education-Profile
high school Diploma Bachelors degree
Masters degree Doctorate degree Law degree
1% 1% 5% 4%
50% 39%
[Graph 8.21 Educations]

4) OCCUPATION:
Category Frequency
Full-time 85
professional
Business 70
man
Student 190
Service 110
Unemployed 45
Total 500
[Table 8.1.21 Occupation]
Full-time
Unemployed
professional
9%
17%
Business man
Service 14%
22%
Student
38%
Occupation- Profile
[Graph 8.22 Occupations]

8.2 ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES
H0: There is no association between gender and usage of twitter.
H1: There is an association between gender and usage of twitter.
Crosstab
Table 8.2.1
Do you use twitter If no go to question no 23
Yes No Total
Gender Male 160 125 285
Female 125 90 215
Total 285 215 500
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square .200a 1 .655
Continuity Correctionb .127 1 .722
Likelihood Ratio .200 1 .655
Fisher's Exact Test
Linear-by-Linear Association .199 1 .655
N of Valid Cases 500
Decision Rule:
In a chi- square test for a 95% confidence interval if the significance level is greater
than or equal to 0.05 it signifies that there is no association between two variables in the
cross tabulation and if the significance level is less than 0.05 then it signifies that there is a
significant relationship between the selected variables.
RESULT of Chi- square test:
From the output tables the chi- square test read a significance level of 0.655 at 95%
confidence level. As it is greater than 0.05, we should accept the null hypothesis that,
There is no significant relationship between gender and usage of twitter.

H0: There is no association between age and usage of twitter.
H1: There is an association between age and usage of twitter.
Crosstab
Table 8.2.2
Do you use twitter ?
Yes No Total
age group Under 18 20 10 30
18-24 110 120 230
25-35 105 55 160
above 35 50 30 80
Total 285 215 500
Chi-Square Tests
Pearson Chi-Square 14.885 3 .002
Likelihood Ratio 14.944 3 .002
Linear-by-Linear Association 4.623 1 .032
confidence level. As it is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis gets rejected.
Hence, there is an association between age and usage of twitter.

H0: There is no association between education and usage of twitter.
H1: There is an association between education and usage of twitter.
Crosstab
Table 8.2.3
yes No Total
education high school 20 5 25
Diploma 25 5 30
Bachelors degree 105 90 195
Masters degree 135 115 250
Total 285 215 500
Chi-Square Tests
Pearson Chi-Square 15.593a 3 .001
Hence, there is an association between Education and usage of twitter.

H0: There is no significant relationship between occupation and usage of twitter.
H1: There is a significant relationship between occupation and usage of twitter.
occupation * Do you use twitter Cross tabulation
Table 8.2.4
yes No Total
occupation Full-time professional 50 35 85
Student 110 80 190
Service 60 50 110
Unemployed 25 20 45
Total 285 215 500
Chi-Square Tests
Pearson Chi-Square .487a 4 .975
Likelihood Ratio .486 4 .975
Linear-by-Linear Association .303 1 .582
confidence level.
As it is greater than 0.05, we should accept the null hypothesis that,
There is no significant relationship between occupation and usage of twitter.

H0: There is no association between occupation and log on frequency on twitter.
H1: There is an association between occupation and log on frequency on twitter.
What is your occupation status * how often do you log on to a twitter in a day Cross tabulation
Table 8.2.5
If yes how often do you log on to a twitter in a day
More than four

Once Twice Thrice times Total
What is your occupation Full-time 15 15 5 15 50

status professional
Business man 15 6 6 13 40
Student 58 7 19 26 110
Service 40 10 5 5 60
Unemployed 9 5 6 5 25
Total 137 43 41 64 285
Chi-Square Tests
Hence, there is an association between occupation and log on frequency on twitter.

H0: There is no association between age and the kind of personality’s tweet one would like
to follow on twitter.
H1: There is an association between age and the kind of personality’s tweet one would like
to follow on twitter.
What is your age group * Tweets Cross tabulation
Table 8.2.6
Tweets
Celebrities Politicians Business persons others Total
What is your age group 18-24 84 15 20 11 130
25-35 30 15 50 10 105
Above 35 7 19 15 9 50
Total 121 49 85 30 285
Chi-Square Tests
Pearson Chi-Square 68.380 6 .000
confidence level. As it is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis gets rejected. Hence, there is an
association between age and the kind of personality’s tweet one would like to follow on
twitter.

H0: There is no association between occupation and the kind of personality’s tweet one
would like to follow on twitter.
H1: There is an association between occupation and the kind of personality’s tweet one
What is your occupation status * Tweets Crosstabulation
Table 8.2.7
Tweets
Business
Celebrities Politicians persons others Total
What is your occupation Full-time professional 17 10 14 9 50

status
Business man 22 7 5 6 40
Student 59 19 23 9 110
Service 18 13 24 5 60
Unemployed 5 5 10 5 25
Total 121 54 76 34 285
Chi-Square Tests
Hence, there is an association between occupation and the kind of personality’s tweet one

8.3 FACTOR ANALYSIS
The factor analysis has been done in order to reduce the no of factors, the factors which are
correlated internally after conducting the factor analysis the no. of factors can be reduced
to a manageable level so the researchers have conducted factor analysis. The list of factors
has been shown below.
Table 8.3.1
List of Factors
The tweets are Informative.
The tweets are entertaining.
The tweets are too small to express my feelings.
The short messages of tweets are more sensible to me than
long paragraphs of blogs /Orkut/face book.
The twitter could be utilized by the company for their
customer service approach.
I would like to know about the New product launches.
I would like to get announcements of Sale, Offers from the
company.
I would like to give suggestion about the Product/Service
difficulties.
Twitter is not a place to broadcast messages of company
but building relationship with customers.
I like to share with my friends about what I am doing using
tweets.
I like to know about what my friends are doing using
twitter.
I like to share photos from my mobile on twitter.

Conducting Factor Analysis:
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .621
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 1140.462
Df 78
Sig. .000
Measure of sample adequacy such as Bartlett's Test of sphericity (Approx. Chi-Square is

1140.462, degree of freedom is 78, significance is 0.000) and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO)
value (0.621) showed that data were fit for factor analysis.
Principal component analysis was used for extracting factors and four factors were
retained and depending upon Eigen values and variance explained. Eigen value represents
the total variance explained by each factor as shown in the figure.
The standard practice normally used is that all the factors with an Eigen value of 1 or more
should be extracted. Hence from the table given below four factors will be retained.

Table 8.3.2
Total Variance Explained
Extraction Sums of Squared Rotation Sums of Squared

Initial Eigenvalues Loadings Loadings
% of Cumulative % of Cumulative % of Cumulative

Component Total Variance % Total Variance % Total Variance %
1 3.210 24.689 24.689 3.210 24.689 24.689 2.727 20.973 20.973
2 2.086 16.044 40.734 2.086 16.044 40.734 1.842 14.167 35.140
3 1.525 11.727 52.461 1.525 11.727 52.461 1.794 13.801 48.941
4 1.300 10.003 62.464 1.300 10.003 62.464 1.758 13.522 62.464
5 .976 7.508 69.972
6 .839 6.452 76.424
7 .690 5.308 81.733
8 .640 4.923 86.656
9 .599 4.609 91.265
10 .394 3.029 94.294
11 .281 2.162 96.456
12 .252 1.939 98.396
13 .209 1.604 100.000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Principal component analysis was used for extracting factors and four factors were
retained and depending upon Eigen values and variance explained. Eigen value represents
the total variance explained by each factor as shown in the figure.

Table 8.3.3
Rotated Component Matrixa
Component
1 2 3 4
I would like to know about the New .845 .072 -.034 .144
product launches
I would like to get announcements of Sale .810 .114 .173 .041

Offers from the company
I would like to give suggestion about the .679 -.184 .210 .007
Product Service difficulties
The twitter could be utilized by the .511 .020 .003 .221

company for their customer service
approach
I like to know about what my friends are -.011 .924 .126 -.003
doing using twitter
I like to share with my friends about what .028 .881 .082 .034
I am doing using tweets
I like to share photos from my mobile on -.051 .193 .700 -.011

twitter
tweets helps my buying decision .336 .077 .687 .178
The tweets are too small to express my .153 -.071 .580 -.160
feelings
Twitter is not a place to broadcast -.491 .139 .516 .108

messages of company but building
relationship with customers
The tweets are entertaining .239 .030 .134 .831
The short messages of tweets are more -.059 .108 -.266 .747
sensible to me than long paragraphs of
blogs orkut face book
The tweets are Informative .440 -.279 .207 .606
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations.

From this rotated component matrix the following table has been derived about the various
factors.
Table 8.3.4
Factor Name of Variables Factor
No. Factors Loadings
F1 Commercial I would like to know about the New product launches

0.845
Usage of twitter I would like to get announcements of Sale Offers from the
0.810
company.
I would like to give suggestion about the Product Service

0.679
difficulties

0.511
customer service approach
F2 Getting I like to know about what my friends are doing using twitter 0.924
Connected with
I like to share with my friends about what I am doing using 0.881
friends
tweets
F3 Tweeter I like to share photos from my mobile on twitter 0.700

as
an Influencer tweets helps my buying decision 0.687
The tweets are too small to express my feelings 0.580
Twitter is not a place to broadcast messages of company 0.516

but building relationship with customers.
F4 Infotainment The tweets are entertaining. 0.831
The short messages of tweets are more sensible to me than 0.747

long paragraphs of blogs , Orkut, face book
The tweets are Informative 0.606

F1: Commercial Usage of twitter:
This is the most important of all the factor with highest variance of 24.689% .This factor
has made up of all the commercial use organization can make up from the twitter. From the
responses and factor analysis the researcher has reached to the consensus that from the
perspective of the organization it is the most vital factor, as it creates the whole
relationship between the organization and consumer.
F2: Getting connected with friends:

This factor is next important, which has the variance of 16.044% .The researchers have
found out that this factor is positively perceived by the respondents .i.e. they would like to
stay connected with the friends and also would like to share what they are doing with their
friends.
F3: Tweeter as an Influencer:
This is the third important factor which is made up 11.727% of the variance. The
researchers have found out that the respondents also perceive that the tweeter can be
added tool to shape the purchase decision and the can be used by the organization to build
up the loyalty towards the organization.
F4: Infotainment:
This the last important factor to be considered which is made up of the 10% variance .The
researchers have also found that the respondents also believe that tweeter is also useful
tool in getting the information as well as entertainment simultaneously.

Key findings & Conclusion
Key findings:
 98% of the respondents are having their account in social media networking site.
 31% of the respondents, who are having their account with the social media, are
spending more than 7 hours in a week on social media.
 57 % of the respondents are having their twitter account.
 190 out of 285 are using twitter to share new information. Amongst the students the
ratio is the highest with 77% of the students are using for this purpose.
 Status messages and News/updates are the most common purpose of twitting.
 42.5 % of the twitter users would like to follow tweets of celebrities.
 160 out of 285 twitter users would like to follow tweets of an IT company.
 49% of the users would very much likely to get their future customer service using
twitter.
 There is no association between the gender and usage. So, keeping aside the gender
difference respondents are using twitter.
 There is no association between the occupation and usage of the twitter.
 There is association between the age and usage of twitter.
o Respondents who are falling in the age –group of 18-24 and 25 -35 are more
making use of twitter than the respondents, who are above the age 35.
 There is an association between the Education and usage of the twitter.
o Graduates and post graduates are making more use of twitter.
 There is an association between the occupation and the log on frequency of the
twitter.
o Students are more logging on to the twitter than business-man and
professionals.
o Out of the respondents, who are Students are often logging in once in a day
on to the twitter.

 There is an association between the occupation and the kind of person’s tweet
respondents would like to follow.
o Respondents, who are falling in the age group of 18-24, would like to follow
celebrities than any other.
o Respondents who are falling in the age-group of 25-35, would like to follow
tweets of Business-persons e.g. Managers, C.E.O.
o Respondents, who are falling in the age-group of above 35, would like to
follow tweets of politicians.
 There is an association between the occupation and the kind of persons’ tweet the
respondents would like to follow.
o Students would like to follow tweets of celebrities.
o Service class people would like to follow tweets of Business persons.
o Full-time professionals would like to follow tweets of Politicians.
 There are main four factors which have been derived from the list of 13 factors.
o Commercial use
o Connectivity with friends
o Infotainment
o Influencer
 The respondents start using twitter more often, when they have unlimited sms or
internet plan.
 The main reason for not having account opened up in the twitter is that they are
having registration with other social media.
Conclusion:
After analyzing the research outcomes, this chapter concludes with the research results.
There is one thing that really distinguishes Twitter i.e. its simplicity. Although the service
now has piles of additional tools and add-ons which extend its use, at its core, Twitter
remains nothing more than a way of describing what you’re doing in no more than 140
characters.

In practice, Indian corporate are using one of the following four kind of tweets for building
the brand
o Company News
o Customer Support
o Feedback
o Special Offers
This survey shows that Indian tweeters are ready for companies approaching them via
Twitter. The online survey showed that many tweeters follow twittering companies and
brands. They value the tweets and are interested in the businesses. Further, they would
value such an approach as impressive customer service. This is another great chance for
Indian companies to get in contact with their customers and engage in dialogue via Twitter.
Recommendations:
After concluding the research several advices can be extracted from the outcomes. This
topic informs about the way Twitter should be used and how customer service via Twitter
should be carried out.
Advice for Business – Customer Conversations
Be authentic. Reflect the core values and mission statement of the business.
Be personal. Show that behind the business there are people. Try to implement the whole
business in your tweets.
Engage in dialogue and conversations. This is what Twitter is all about.
Follow customers. Most of them will like it that the business or brand they like is interested
in what they say.

References:
K. R. (2010). Twitter Me This: How Do You Use Twitter For Marketing & Making Money On The Internet.
Osaka: Kevin Riley.
About us . (2006). Retrieved 1 1, 2010, from A, twitter : http://www.twitter.com
Comm, J. (2008). Twitter power. Chicago: Tata macgraw hill.
Comm, J. (2009). Twitter power. Danver: Wiley.
dellsalesindia. (n.d.). Retrieved march 15, 2010, from www.twitter.com/dellsalesindia
dharmrajan, K. (2009). Twitter can pay yor mortgage. New york: Eureka.
Glinski, P. (2009). What’s Your Twitter Strategy? Queens: Idea Couture Inc.
home. (n.d.). Retrieved march 10, 2010, from www.flickr.com
ICICI care twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved march 15, 2010, from www.twitter.com/icicicare
(2009). Indian Companies on Twitter. Noida: Iffort.
Jr, W. M. (2008). Twitter-The Next Revolution in On-Line and Mobile. New york: Prorock Productions.
kawasaki, g. (n.d.). twittdeck. Retrieved march 4, 2010, from www.tweetdeck.com
Kelly, R. (2009, 8 24). twitter study. Retrieved 2 16, 2010, from Pear Analy<cs: www.pearanalytics.com.
L, L. (2010). A Beginner’s Guide to Using & Marketing with twitter. leverpool.
Makice, K. (2008). Twitter API: Up and Running. Cambridge: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
McFedries, P. (2009). Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets. Danver: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Milstein, T. O. (2009). The Twitter Book. Cambridge: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Mischaud, E. (2007). Twitter: Expressions of the Whole Self. London: Media@lse.
O’Neill, M. (2009). The Complete Guide to Twitter. makeuseof.com.
pitre, t. (2010). twitter your time away. yorkshire: tata macgraw hill.
Reports. (2009, june). Retrieved march 1, 2010, from Sysomos inc.:

http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter
Reynolds, B. (2009). Twitter: A new breed of social networking. DME, UMa.

Rose, K. (n.d.). marketing tweets. Retrieved February 13, 2010, from www.MarketingTweet.com
Saric, M. (2010, 1 24). Retrieved 2 12, 2010, from www.TwitterMarketingBook.com
Shaw, M. (2009, january 13). Twitter for Business. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from www.markshaw.biz
social media. (n.d.). Retrieved march 4, 2010, from news: www.nielsenwire.com
socialmedia. (n.d.). Retrieved january 12, 2010, from www.wikipedia.com
starbucks twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved march 10, 2010, from www.twitter.com/starbucks
thedizzispace. (n.d.). Retrieved march 4, 2010, from www.digitalspace.com
tweetcounter. (n.d.). Retrieved march 4, 2010, from www.tweetcounter.com
tweetlater. (n.d.). Retrieved march 4, 2010, from www.tweetlater.com
twitter as a platform. (n.d.). Retrieved march 2, 2010, from www.TwitPwr.com
(2009). twitter mastery. usa: successcurrency.
twittertools. (n.d.). Retrieved march 10, 2010, from http://twitterpacks.pbworks.com/Twitter+Tools
Twitter™ For Dummies. (2009). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Using Twitter to Help Build. (n.d.). Retrieved february 16, 2010, from www.twtpwr.com
wholefoods. (n.d.). Retrieved march 15, 2010, from www.twitter.com/wholefoods
Zarrella, D. (2010). The Social Media Marketing Book. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Annexure

SURVEY FORM
Dear sir/madam
This survey is conducted as a part of the study; we are pursuing MBA at NRIBM - AHMEDABAD. Details
provided by you in the survey will be used for academic purpose only. Information will be strictly
confidential. In advance we sincerely thank you for your time.
1) Do you have account in any social media networking sites?
Yes No
2) If yes which are those sites? (you can tick more than one )
Face book My space

Orkut LinkedIn
Twitter Buzz
Others (Please Specify)_______
3) Which social media do you use the most?
__________________________________________________________
4) How much time in a week are you spending on social media networking?
<1 hour 5-7 hour

1-3 hour >7 hour
3-5 hour
5) Do you own a hand-held device from which internet is accessible?(If no go to question no-8)
 Yes No
6) If yes, do you access internet from that device?
Yes No
7) If yes, for what purpose do you access the internet from that device?
E-mail Download music

Follow or update micro blogs Surfing
Check information Online banking, Shopping etc.
Other please specify _________
8) Do you use twitter? (If no go to question no- 23 )
Yes No

9) If yes, how often do you log on to a twitter in a day?
Once Thrice
Twice More than four times
10) How long have you been a twitter user?
< 1 year 2-3 years

1-2 years >3 years
11) How many followers do you have? __________________________
12) To how many are you following? ____________________________
13) Do you use twitter as an alternative mode of communication technology (e.g. sms, chat etc.)
If yes which forms?
Yes No
If yes ________________________________
14) Are you ready to spend extra money for getting the twitter service on your mobile phone?
Yes No
15) What is the purpose of twitting? (you can tick more than one )
Connected with friends Passing time

Sharing new information Other________ _______
Work related tweets
16) What do you tweet about?
Very Very
often Often Neutral Less Less
Private Stuff (What I am doing?)/ Status
Thoughts & Feelings I am undergoing
Links of various websites / resources
Work related tweets
Comments /@ tweets
News/Updates
Photos

17) I would like to follow tweets of …………
Celebrities Politicians
Business persons (CEO, Chairman Others please specify_______
etc.)
18) Would you like to follow tweets of any company / organization?
Yes
No
19) If yes, what kind of companies` tweet would you like to follow on twitter? (you can tick more
than one )
FMCG
Retail
Consumer Durables
Electronics
NGO
IT
Stock- broking companies
Hospitals
Others (please Specify) _____

20) Please respond the following sentence to reflect your opinion as accurately as possible.
Mark against the option you would like to choose
Strongly Strongly
Agree Agree Neutral Disagree disagree
The tweets are Informative.
The tweets are entertaining.
The tweets are too small to express my feelings.
The short messages of tweets are more sensible to me than
long paragraphs of blogs /orkut/face book.
customer service approach.
I would like to know about the New product launches.
I would like to get announcements of Sale, Offers from the
company.
I would like to give suggestion about the Product/Service
difficulties.
Twitter is not a place to broadcast messages of company but
building relationship with customers.
I like to share with my friends about what I am doing using
tweets.
I like to know about what my friends are doing using twitter.
I like to share photos from my mobile on twitter.
Tweet helps me for my buying decision.
21) In future which mode of communication would you prefer from the company whose products /
service you are availing?
Very likely Eventually Unlikely
Store-manager Store: The store manager will handle

the complaint.
E-mail E-mail: E-mail from the customer
service department.
Call Call: Call from the customer service
department.
Twitter Twitter: Tweet or direct message from
the customer service department.
Blog Blog: Comment or E-mail via my weblog

22) I would use Twitter more often when……..( Rank them according to order of preference , for
example : rank 1 is your most likely option and rank 7 is your most unlikely option)
______ I would know something interesting to twitter about.

______ I would have spare time.
______ I would have a mobile unlimited plan.
______ I would have more followers.
______ I would have mobile Internet.
______ I would think of it more often.
______ I wouldn‘t. I‘m using it quite extensively.
23) Why do you not use twitter?
I am already registered with a social networking site, I don’t need any more.
I don’t know what to tweet.
I think it is a waste of time.
SMS and E-mail is enough.
I don’t see any use of twitter.
24) I will create my account in twitter because____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
26) I will use twitter more if ___________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

DEMOGRAPHICS:
GENDER: Male Female
AGE:
Below 15 26 – 35
15 – 25 Above 35
EDUCATION:
Under Graduate Graduate Post Graduate
Professional Other__________________________
OCCUPATION:
Student Businessman Service
Professional Housewife Other ____________

Glossary
@Reply: A tweet that is directed to one specific person. The tweet is still visible to
others, yet it is saved to a “Replies” section of the recipient.
@Twitter name: See @Reply. The Twitter name of a person behind an @-sign
Addresses the tweet to this very person.
Avatar: A graphical representation or artificial person often used in the Internet.
Blog: Or weblog. Derived from the term Web for Internet and log for journal; a
chronological online journal often photos or videos are added to the website. Blogs
mostly represent a view of one person or small group and subjectively comment on
happenings or specific topics.
Blogger: A person writing a blog.
Blogging: Writing a weblog entry.
Blogging sphere: The weblog writing scene. Often bloggers refer to each others
articles, blogs or comments and quote each other. This creates a certain community
feeling, sympathy and scene.
C-Level (Tweeter): From CEO tweeter; a tweeting CEO.
Clients: A software program that connects with other program in order to use a
computer service on a web server.
Direct Message: Or DM. A message send to a person on Twitter that is private and not
visible to anybody else than the recipient. It is saved to a special Direct Message

section on the Twitter profile page.
Feed: A feed is a continuously updating stream of information of a specific website.
The stream can contain text, links and pictures to articles or sections of the website.
Follow, to follow: To subscribe to another person‘s status updates on Twitter.
Follower: A person who follows the status updates of another person.
Following: To receive another person‘s status updates.
Hashtag, hash-tagging: By writing a hastag # in front of a word (e.g. #christmas) this

word is searchable via a website and can be used to connect a message to a certain
topic. This topic can then be searched and all messages containing the word with the
hashtag in front of it are displayed.
Knowledge Base: A knowledge database that contains explicit knowledge about

specific topics. Often used on websites of technical products.
Lifestreaming: An Internet feed that connects to other online services like Youtube or
filckr and makes their functionality useable to the user.
Open source: The accessibility of a programs code or source available to anybody.

Open Source programs are mostly free to download and can be used, changed and
developed by any person.
Plugin: An additionally piece of software that can be added to a program in order to

extend its abilities.
Post, a post: An entry on a weblog or in the commentary section of a weblog.
Post, to post: To write and publish a piece of text via a service or website.

Public Timeline: The main timeline of Twitter where every status update of any tweeter
is published.
Repost or Retweet: To send a tweet a second time by referring to the original author. Often
marked with the word Repost, Retweet or RT. Authors often ask their followers to
retweet a certain message when they regard it as worth sharing with a large audience.
Status update: A message published on social networks or services like Twitter.
Templates: In this case: A predefined message that can be partly edited or adapted or
a specific purpose.
Tweet: A message of a maximum of 140 characters published via Twitter.
Tweeter: A person using Twitter.
Tweeting: Writing and publishing status updates or tweets via Twitter.
Twitter Client: A software that connects to the Twitter service and let the user write
and read tweets. The extent of the software is different among the various clients.
Twitterer: Another term for a person that uses Twitter. See also tweeter.
Twittering: Another term for writing and publishing status updates or tweets via Twitter.
Unfollow, to unfollow: To stop following a person‘s status updates.

Analysis of Social Media With Specific Focus On Twitter

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Social Media Analysis

.. An In depth study with specific focus on “Twitter”

ANAND KHAMAR (8048)

GAURANG PATEL (8075)

PROF. RAJESH ASRANI

AS A PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM

N.R. Institute of Business Management

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Twitter is a messaging service that shares a lot of characteristics with communication

Twitter for Business:

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

1.4 Objectives of the Research Study:

1.5 Need For The Research Study:

1.6 Scope of the Research Study:

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

1.7.2 Data Collection:

Secondary data collection:

Methods of secondary data collection:

Secondary data is mainly collected by the following means:

Primary data collection:

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Methods of primary data collection:

The following methods of primary data collection were used:

 Online Survey Tool i.e. www.surveygizmos.com

500 Internet Users as defined in the sampling unit.

The sampling techniques used for the research are

 Non probability sampling

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

• An Introduction to Social Media Landscape

• Twitter : Introduction to features and

• Twitter, a powerful social media tool

• Brand Building with Twitter

• Third Party Tools of Twitter

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

• Key findings & Conclusion

1.7.6 Limitations of Report:

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

An Introduction to the Social

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

That’s social media, and it’s a publishing revolution.

2.2 Social Media

Social media can be said to have 3 components

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

2.4.1 PHOTO SITES

Figure 2.1 Flickr is the big daddy of photo-sharing Web sites.

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

“A few of us were thinking about what are some interesting

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel

Anand Khamar Gaurang Patel