Twitter is going through a transition period

Twitter has been able to create a lot of buzzes lately. It has a new owner now, named Elon Musk. This change has taken place after several ifs and buts. But a decision has been made.

Now, if we take a look at the previous actions related to this matter. Then we can safely conclude that there have been various changes to the multimillion-dollar deal. At first, it was declared that Musk will buy the company. But later on, he demanded to disclose the number of fake accounts. Then it was declared that he was cancelling the deal. After that, Twitter did question the fact that someone cannot cancel a deal after having a look at some confidential data.

So now the $44 million deal is done. It also avoids Elon Musk from facing a court case, which Twitter was planning to put against the famous billionaire. As a result of the deal, several top executives have been removed from their places. There have also been layoffs to reduce the number of employees.

Now, when it comes to Twitter as a platform, then there will be some changes to the social media platform. The first one is the fact that the blue tick will now cost $8 for a month. So, this is the beginning of a new future for Twitter.

Now, there are also speculations that Elon Musk will be making a lot of changes within the Twitter platform. Some of them can be seen on the official Twitter account of the famous billionaire. All of these changes will be seen shortly.

https://unsplash.com/photos/cJDwJ4X2IrQ

https://unsplash.com/photos/cJDwJ4X2IrQ

Among all this, there have been various speculations that the employees of Twitter are going to sue it for the mass firing act. To remove the spotlight from the mass layoff, there are also complaints from Elon Musk that the advertisers are fleeing the platform.

There is also speculation by Twitter users that there will now be strict rules and regulations that will shape a different future for Twitter. All of these also point out that Elon Musk is desperately waiting for Twitter to start making money.

After the layoffs, Jack Dorsey has also taken the responsibility for the layoffs. The layoffs have come as a setback for several employees. But there is also speculation that after the layoffs, some employees are being requested to come back.

This layoff has mainly affected India. The maximum workforce of the company has been fired in India, and now very few have been retained.  

All of these events have given very bold and harsh indications to the entire world. As Elon Musk is the CEO, so he will now be taking a lot of steps towards changing the company. The steps will bring about some more surprises, as has been depicted by the above incidents. But the effects will also be there. The recent rapid steps have not been accepted positively by the public. So, it remains to be seen, what more will make the headlines for the social networking site. After all this, the future is exciting for Twitter. 

History of twitter

Twitter is an American social networking and microblogging service. Twitter users interact with small messages called, “tweets”. Currently twitter has more than 330 million monthly active users. It is in the league of big social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram etc. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Even Williams in March. In this article I will take you through the journey of creation and rise of twitter.

Initial history

In 2006, Jack was an undergraduate student at New York University. He came up with an idea of an SMS service to communicate with small group. He shared his idea with board members of a podcasting members Odeo. Williams was also part of board members. He later ascribed the idea to Noah. They decided to name this project twttr as domain twitter.com was already in use. Later they bought the domain name and changed the name of service to twitter. Twitter spun off its own company in 2007.

Work on the project started on March 21, 2006 and full version was publicly in july 2006.

The first breakthrough moment for twitter came in 2007 through South by Southwest Interactive conference. During the event, twitter engagement increased from 20000 tweets par day to 60000. They placed two 60 inch plasma screens in the conference hallways. These screens were used to stream twitter messages.

This conference helped twitter in rapid initial growth. Almost 400k tweets were being posted on twitter per quarter in 2007. This increased to 100 million tweet per quarter in 2008. By 2010, company recorded over 70000 registered applications. In march 2021 it became third highest ranking social site. Prominent events like football world cup, NBA finals etc. helped twitter in growing quickly. When Michael Jackson died on 25th June 2009, twitter severs crashed as users were tweeting at the rate 100k tweets per hour.

Emergence of “New Twitter”

After gaining popularity, twitter started revamping it’s service. Initial changes included the ability to see pictures and videos without leaving twitter by clicking on link given in individual tweets of various sites like YouTube.

On 5 April 2011 , twitter released a new home page but due to some glitch it was relaunched on 20th April 2011. On 8th December 2011, twitter added a new feature to its website named “FLY”. In addition to home tab, the connect and discover were also introduced. On 21 March 2012, twitter celebrated its birthday and also announced that they have 140 million active users.

In 2012 twitter expanded at a fast rate. They opened an office in Detroit to work with automobile brands. In june 2012, logo of twitter was modified to bird symbol. Throughout next couple of years twitter acquired several companies like Vine, Crashlytics, Trendrr etc.

In 2014, twitter underwent a redesign which significantly changes its interface. Some of major changes included profile picture and biography in a column left to the timeline, and a full-width header image. Twitter acquired many different type of companies onwards 2014 like Namo Media ( a native advertising company) in 2014, Mitro( a password-security startup) on 31st july 2014, Niche(an advertising network) on February 2015 etc.

Twitter took an significant step in 2020 and started marking tweets which contain misleading information.

Twitter kept expanding its business and was announced to be the 10th most downloaded mobile app in 2019.

Afghanistan-Taliban Crisis for Social Media giants

The Taliban’s fast takeover of Afghanistan postures a unused challenge for huge US tech companies on dealing with substance made by a bunch considered to be fear mongers by a few world governments.

Social media monster Facebook affirmed on Monday that it assigns the Taliban a fear based oppressor bunch and bans it and substance supporting it from its platforms. But Taliban individuals have allegedly kept on utilize Facebook’s end-to-end scrambled informing benefit WhatsApp to communicate straightforwardly with Afghanis in spite of the company forbidding it beneath rules against unsafe associations.

A Facebook representative said the company was closely observing the circumstance within the nation which WhatsApp would take activity on any accounts found to be connected with endorsed associations in Afghanistan, which might incorporate account removal. On Twitter, Taliban representatives with hundreds of thousands of supporters have tweeted overhauls amid the country’s takeover. Asked around the Taliban’s utilize of the stage, the company pointed to its approaches against rough associations and derisive conduct but did not reply Reuters questions almost how it makes its classifications. Twitter’s rules say it does not permit bunches who advance fear mongering or savagery against civilians.

The Taliban’s return has raised fears it’ll split down on opportunity of discourse and human rights, especially women’s rights, which the nation may ended up a sanctuary once once more for worldwide terrorism. Taliban authorities have issued articulations saying they need tranquil worldwide relations and have guaranteed to secure Afghans. Major social media firms this year made high-profile choices on dealing with sitting world pioneers and bunches in power. These incorporate disputable pieces of previous US President Donald Trump for affecting savagery around the January 6 Capitol revolt and bans on Myanmar’s military in the midst of a upset within the country. Facebook, which was long scrutinized for coming up short to combat abhor discourse in Myanmar, said the overthrow raised dangers of offline hurt and its history of human rights infringement contributed to the boycott on the administering military or Tatmadaw.

The companies, which have come beneath fire from worldwide officials and controllers for their outsized political and financial impact, frequently depend on state assignments or official worldwide acknowledgments to decide who is permitted on their sites. These too offer assistance decide who can be confirmed, permitted official state accounts or may get uncommon treatment for rule-breaking discourse due to newsworthiness or open intrigued loopholes. However, the contrasts among the tech companies’ positions propose the approach isn’t uniform. Alphabet’s YouTube, inquired whether it contains a boycott or limitations on the Taliban, declined to comment but said the video-sharing benefit depends on governments to characterize “Outside Fear based oppressor Organizations” (FTO) to direct the site’s requirement of its rules against savage criminal bunches

YouTube pointed to the US State Department’s list of FTO’s of which the Taliban isn’t a part. The US instep classifies the Taliban as a “Extraordinarily Assigned Worldwide Fear monger,” which solidifies the US resources of those boycotted and bars Americans from working with them. Complicating things encourage, in spite of the fact that most nations appear small sign they will perceive the gather carefully, the Taliban’s position on the world arrange may however move as they cement control. “The Taliban is to some degree an acknowledged player at an worldwide relations level,” said Mohammed Sinan Siyech, a analyst on security in South Asia and doctoral candidate at the College of Edinburgh, indicating to talks China and the Joined together States have held with the group. “If that acknowledgment comes in, at that point for a company like Twitter or Facebook to create a subjective decision that this gather is awful and we’ll not have them postures complications.

Twitter Testing to Flag ‘Misleading’ Content

Twitter on Tuesday declared a modern highlight to permit clients to hail substance that may contain deception, a flay that has as it were developed amid the pandemic. “We’re testing a highlight for you to report Tweets that appear deluding – as you see them,” the social arrange said from its security and security account.

Starting Tuesday, a button would be obvious to a few clients from the Joined together States, South Korea, and Australia to select “it’s deluding” after clicking “report tweet.” Users can at that point be more particular, hailing the deceiving tweet as possibly containing deception around “wellbeing,” “legislative issues” and “other.”

“We’re surveying on the off chance that typically an viable approach so we’re beginning little,” the San Francisco-based company said. “We may not take activity on and cannot react to each report within the experiment, but your input will offer assistance us recognize patterns so that we will move forward the speed and scale of our broader deception work.” Twitter, like Facebook and YouTube, frequently comes.

But the stage does not have the assets of its Silicon Valley neighbors, and so regularly depends on exploratory strategies that are less costly than selecting armed forces of moderators. Such endeavors have inclined up as Twitter toughened its deception rules amid the COVID-19 widespread and amid the US presidential decision between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

For case, Twitter started blocking clients in Walk who have been cautioned five times almost spreading wrong data almost vaccines. And the organize started hailing tweets from Trump with a pennant caution of their deluding substance amid his 2020 re-election campaign, some time recently the then-president was at long last prohibited from the site for posting actuations to viciousness and messages undermining the race results. Moderators are eventually dependable for deciding which substance really damages Twitter’s terms of utilize, but the arrange has said it trusts to inevitably utilize a framework that depends on both human and mechanized ana

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

 

Social Media Marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Earlier, e-marketing and digital marketing were in vogue . But today, the term Social Media Marketing is gaining recognition. It connects you with your audience and helps in building your brand, increases sales and drives website traffic. It allows brands to establish their social media “tone” and “culture” and manage marketing campaign. 

The major social media platforms used are: Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.

Through Social Media Marketing, companies keep in touch with individual followers. This helps instil loyalty into followers and potential customers. The use of new semantic analysis technology helps marketers detect buying signals. This includes content shared by people and questions posted.  

Below is a step by step guide you can use to enhance you social media presence:

  1. SETTING GOALS:

You should know what you want out of social media. Some may use social media for brand awareness whereas some may use it to drive website traffic. You should set realistic social media goals. To begin with, you should set small and achievable goals for yourself. This will scale your social media efforts and will be reasonable and affordable. 

You should pick out the social media platforms where your target audience is more. After creating a good social media presence on some platforms, you can expand it on other platforms as well. 

Your current social media marketing plan doesn’t have to be your plan forever. You can bring changes to it according to how your posts perform.

  1. PLANNING AND PUBLISHING:

Close to three billion people use the internet daily. In the initial stages, your main aim is being consistent on social media. All you’ve got to do is post pictures, videos or a blog post daily. This will bring you brand in the eyes of future customers. You need to plan your content beforehand and publish it at the right time. Also, being aware of your target audience is a must. Also, where does your target audience resides. A variety of social media scheduling tools allow you to publish your content on your preferred time.This saves your time and allows you to reach your audience when they engage with your content.

  1. ENGAGEMENT:

Engagement means that customers and stakeholders are active participants rather than passive. Engagement on social media can be divided into two parts: proactive and reactive conversations. Proactive means regularly posting content like photos and videos. Reactive conversations involve commenting and engaging. People might talk about your brand without your knowledge. So you will want to track conversations about your brand. But it is impossible to check all the notifications. Instead you can use a social media listening and engagement tool. It allows you to see all the mentions and messages throughout different platforms. It also enables you to see the posts that didn’t tag your business’s social media profile.

  1. ANALYTICS:

You will want to know how well your posts are doing in promoting and reaching out to people. You need to analyse the performance of your one post over the other. This will help you to fine tune your content for more engagement. Tracking the metrics of your content in real time will enable you to make small changes. It will save you from sweeping your entire strategy for a new one. You can be reactive in the short term to get the most out of your running campaign. Later,  proactively use these takeaways to inform your next major strategy. 

  1. ADVERTISING:

Promotion through social media ads is one way to promote your brand. It helps you reach greater audiences, even the people who don’t follow you. You can create ads according to your target audience. You can also specify the demographics, interests, etc. Social media advertising tools enable you to make bulk changes, automate processes and optimise ads.

Social media platforms are evolving everyday. You see some update almost everyday on the platforms you use. This means that social media marketing is also evolving everyday. Going with the current trends is one way of improving your content. People like to follow brands which post content with reference to the current trends. Because most of the users of social media consists of GenZs and millennials, it’s best to target them as your audience.

What happens if Social Media Disappears

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Sharing our meals, style, routine, work, relationships, friendships, opinion exercises, likes, and lives has become so normal, it’s now compulsive. We joke that if you didn’t post it, it didn’t happen. But what if one day, you went to post your beautiful meal on Instagram and you can’t find the app. Anywhere. There is also no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. This can’t be happening. Social media has disappeared. Would there be chaos? How would communication change? How would your brain change?


Social media is a huge part of everyday life, with those 16 to 24 years of age spending 3 hours a day, on an average using social media. At this age, if we live to our old age, we’ll end up spending seven years of our entire lives on social media. And it’s an amount expected to rise with younger generations. It would be a rough wake up call to lose connections and friends that were solely based on social media apps like Instagram. You would immediately feel disconnected, uninformed, and lost. Your brain would also be going through some major withdrawal symptoms. Using social media releases dopamine through the Ventral Tegmental Area of the brain or VTA, it’s the same neurotransmitter that releases those good feelings when you win a lottery, make love, or eat junk food. It makes us feel wonderful, at least momentarily, and the continuous craving keeps us coming back for more.

Social media is a drug and many of us are willing addicts. The VTA evolved in humans as a social tool, helping us in learning good behavior from bad. Now, the same chemical response once prompted by a real-life-friendly hug or celebration for personal achievement is triggered by virtual likes, or hearts or comments. Yet social media can make us feel the opposite of happy. The fear of missing out(FOMO), anxiety, jealously, insecurity, and needing instant approval from others, these are all impulses that increase with social media use.


So, while your brain is going through withdrawal, you’ll also be discovering what it feels like not to have to be connected all the time, which could be pretty refreshing. Just remember we did survive with no media for millennia. One of the first platform Friendster, came online in 2002, followed two years later by Facebook. It wasn’t until 2005, that YouTube changed our world. You still have e-mail and Google, so not all is lost, texting and calling still exist, so staying in contact with friends and family just requires a little more effort. You might begin reading books and magazines again, something needs to fill that void where influencers opinion used to be. You’d also have to get news the old-fashioned way without the filters of algorithms, which means you would be better informed. More than half of the world population get some form of news from social media, but platforms such as Facebook or Twitter do not have the ethical requirements of traditional journalism. The information on social media channels is not fact-checked, leaving it up to you to figure out what is credible and what is simply an opinion or worse a complete lie.
However, the actual good news is that you might get to know your neighbor, the lack of social media could bring physical communities closer since there isn’t the online option anymore.
We have a complicated relationship with social media, it has the potential to be both highly positive and very negative. In the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, social media became one of the only ways people could reach out to each other, during nationwide lockdowns. It brought comfort, connection, and entertainment during a difficult time. But at the same time, it also spread miscommunication about the virus.


Social Media is not disappearing any time soon, but it would be worthwhile for your mental health to consider how much time you spend on social platforms, then spend less, there is probably even an app for that.