CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Twitter for Business Originally conceived of as a microblogging platform in 2006, Twitter has evolved into a global ecosystem where people and organizations can easily connect, discover and engage. With its 140-character limit, Twitter offers a unique, fast-paced, real-time experience for users. Due to its real-time nature, Twitter has changed how people communicate, how news breaks and how companies grow. The reach of the platform goes far beyond its active user base too. Anyone who has watched a newscast or read an online article in the past five years has surely seen Tweets embedded into the story, either as a quote or realtime reaction. In 2016, over 332 million active users were Tweeting at a rate of 6,000 Tweets per second. According to Twitter, that adds up to 11 billion Tweet views everyday. It’s important to remember that while there are “only” 332 million active users, a massive audience for the social network exists. Twitter attracts a lot of negative press due to its comparison with other social networks, most notably Facebook. Those analyses however, fail to recognize the weight and impact Twitter has on information shared through the platform. CNN, famous for its ability to break news on television, now often refers to Tweets from witnesses and key sources in order to develop a story. Twitter has long been the platform of choice for brief, important announcements too, from the Phoenix Mars Lander discovering ice on Mars to Marshawn Lynch’s wordless retirement Tweet. Those, and countless others have sparked conversations that carry on around the world with replies, mentions, retweets and likes.