Running Head: THE INTERNET PROJECT
The Internet Project
Introduction
An internet social networking service is an online service or site that is aimed at creating and reproducing of social networks or social relations in people who for instance, share interests and activities. For this networking service to be applied it requires the representation of the person, the persons social links and a wide range of supplementary services. Most of the social networks are accessible over the internet hence the term; internet social networking (Zillman, February, 2012). This social networking project are based on the web and are useful in making people interact with one another over the internet like e-mail and instant messaging. These social sites make it possible for users to be able to share ideas, activities, events and even interests in their personal networks.
Twitter’s Global Reach
Twitter is a social networking site that is below three years old and commanding over 41 million users beginning July 2009 and it is rapidly increasing. The users tweet about a wide range of things within the 140 character frame and follow other fellow users to get their tweets. The entire Twitter site is composed of 1.47 billion social relations, 41.7 million user profiles, 4260 trending topics and 106 million tweets in the whole world. Different from the other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, the aspect following does not require feedback.
Twitter has a slightly higher global reach in women than men do; this is in reference to a study by comScore. “How Women Are Shaping the Internet” shows that in spite of Twitter’s position as an emerging technology that has been applied much earlier by men globally, more women are using twitter (comscore, 2012). Amongst all the women in the age brackets of 15 and above, Twitter has reached out to about 7% in April of 2010, in comparison to 6.5% for the men in the age brackets of 15 and above.
Twitter’s global growth in women and men has been far positive in its pattern, reaching below 1% of both male and female by November 2008 and increasing gradually, with the female being slightly ahead. Globally, women have a more adoption mechanism of Twitter which is different depending on the country and region. In the US, Twitter’s consistency is not strong. With women being ahead of the men in 2008, the lead then changing till April 2010 where the men were far less 12% just a bit higher than the women. Contrastingly, in Australia, women have had a lead since April of about 6% 2009 with 7% in 2012. Singapore has a more sound contrast with the women hitting 14% while women being 10%. The gender developments in Germany, Japan and UK closely show the trends in the global scene.
Global Impact of Twitter
Twitter may not be in good shoes when looking for a profitable business model, though the company has made a significant impact on several levels in the marketing scene. As this social networking service acquires steam, several big organizations to the local levels are acquiring massive benefits due to its wide reach. Twitter is advancing into as a dependable social networking site with actual news and it is steadily growing in becoming a valuable source of information globally (vox, Jun 2009). For instance; the Mumbai terrorist attacks was first spread on Twitter, the applied use of it by several governments to develop transparency and direct communication with their locals whom they represent, the academicians use it to keep a follow up on the research and professional opinions, the doctors have put it to use so as to use it as a didactical facility in operations for their students to track, business similarly use twitter to keep their clients updated on the products and services among others. In business, Amazon has used it to react to the complaint or censoring of adult books, Starbucks mended its image by refuting claims that it was terminating its service to Iran troops as a protest of the war, Dell reacted to the client’s complain of the some keys being too close to one another by rectifying the problem. Dell later reported to have made millions in sales all being attributed to twitter.
Another impact of Twitter has similarly been felt on events. Events formulate the manner in which Twitter works and users use Twitter to follow an upcoming event. The social site’s impact in education has not failed to be felt. According to the Higher Education Research Institute stated that over 90% of students use the site as a learning site.
Benefits of Twitter
Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to acquire several benefits. Users are able to stay connected; friends and family are able to share information about varied topics. They hence update each other on upcoming, ongoing or past events (Solaris, December 2011). Topics such as road trips, children and life events allow them to stay connected. Clubs and groups keep in touch and are able to talk of their matters without the face to face meeting. The other benefit is that it allows users to stay informed; reporters, politicians and businesses post information using Twitter hence allowing those following them to get the information. Twitter users are able to promote and outreach other users. People, businesses and enterprises use Twitter to advance themselves, attracting attention to events, creating awareness on goods and services and creating chat topics about their brands. Twitter has been used by businesses for purpose of customer service and support systems. Looking out for and responding to posts by brands, businesses are able to have a direct hand in controlling a discussion about their business. Business are also able to offer rewards to the people who spread developing image about a company, this may be through an expression of gratitude. While negative coverage may be handled by responding to unhappy clients. In terms of research, Twitter is beneficial to the people who are bent on reading rather than posting (Lee, 2011). Twitters are able to able to acquire information about informal reviews of goods and service. This is based on the customer recommendations and views of a product. Individuals planning for a weekend gate away are also able to get information of better places of choice.
Risks of social networking site
There are varied forms of fears that one may encounter while using Twitter. Considering security risk, Twitter allows one to share very many things concerning one. In the start, one may acquire trust nut when continue to tweet and issuing out information about the location, one may risk personal security. Issuing out information about security allows meeting with you and sharing several things, this also allows other people you may not know to access the same information and create a threat to one’s life. It is hence advisable not to share information about your location, the more information being shared, the higher the risk.
In terms of financial risk, people that issue information about their maiden name, security social number and address are creating a risk for themselves as this and more are vital information that a wide range of people are able to access. This information may be used in other sites, if it falls in the wrong hands, it may result into bankrupting an individual (Tech Tips, 2012). There is also the job security risk where people share a lot of information about what goes on in the office like their bosses. Telling information about your business or boss is vital as it is accessible to a wide range of people who would lead one to lose his or her job. There is also the account security, the constant changing of passwords and use name make it hard for people to access your account. There are however a number of users whose password is easy to guess or give it out willingly. This presents the chance for some people to post negative things and access some vital information that would place the account owner into great problems.
Conclusion
The internet social networks are a real growth point of the internet. With the desire of people from all over the world to maintain contact, share ideas and also promote their business, it hence becomes a vital sector for interaction. It has created a capability for the internet to offer this networking competency the strength it deserves to grow much further. The resources accessible on the internet are free for several people to use. The impact it has had since its coming to being is quite immensely beneficial and at the same disadvantageous. The wide range of social networking sites on the internet is steadily growing and in addition to becoming a common tool by the youth and the old, it has become common similarly to the business sector and as acquired quite a string grip to it as has been seen. It however calls for one to be extra careful and not issue more information than required or issue sensitive information that would dents one image and even be fatal. Social networking sites are otherwise on the high and expected to receive more benefits and growing number of users as time goes by; with the young and old being part of this growth.
Bibliography
Comscore. (2012). Global Reach of Twitter. Marketing Charts.
Lee, D. (2011). What are the benefits of twitter?
Solaris, J. (December 2011). The Impact of New Twitter on Events. Event Manager.
Tech Tips, (2012). Twitter Security Risks. Twitter.
Vox, m. (Jun 2009). The Twuth About Twitter: It’s Impact on Businesses and Communications. Online Marketing.
Zillman, M. P. (February, 2012). Online Social Networking. An internet miniguide.
