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Essay on Twitter Strength of Weak Ties

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10 Twitter The strength of weak ties Amardeep Virk Introduction I have more than a thousand friends, can tell you what Shaquille O’Neal and Paris Hilton are thinking of right now and got my last job without ever having applied for it. No, I’m not a celebrity or a multi-millionaire. I’m a citizen of the newly ‘flattened’ world [ (Friedman, 2007) ] and an avid user of Social Networking Sites (SNS’s). SNS’s such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are rewriting the way individuals communicate and express themselves. With the help of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, mashups and other social websites, new and creative ways of communication are being developed, transgressing geographic and cultural boundaries (Fu et al., 2007) [ (IBM, …show more content…

Impact of Twitter on Global Organisations Drawing on academic literature and the attributes discussed above, I believe that Twitter has the potential to greatly influence two key functions of global organisations – Marketing and Finance. Marketing As is probably evident by now, collaboration and community are the two important pillars of SNS’s like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Coupled with ubiquitous online access, the connectivity these services provide is unparalleled when compared with other media. Due to these unique features, I believe that the Twitter can have a substantial impact in the realm of brand perception and brand awareness. Word-of-Mouth (WOM) is the process of relaying information from a person to another and heavily influences product purchasing decisions [ (Richins & Root-Shaffer, 1988) ]. Consequently, Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) is the process by which organisations intentionally influence consumer-to-consumer communications through various marketing techniques (Kozinets et al., 2010). Positive WOM is considered extremely desirable as it can positively influence consumer purchasing decisions. Research also indicates that consumers not only trust the words of their own immediate social network but also those of individuals outside, like online reviewers and columnists. This is now known as eWOM (Electronic

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