E-Commerce Week #5

Why Twitter Should Matter to E-Commerce Shops

David Miller

e-commerce-guide.com

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/trends/article.php/3791211

The microblogging service, Twitter, is a free site therefore it has no revenue model which is recognized by most of its users. However, there continue to be complaints about unreliable service, the exceptionally high noise-to-signal ratio, and accusations towards the company for “top to bottom” incompetence. Through all of these alleged complaints, Twitter continues to provide its services, and looks to continue far into the future as users are finding more uses for the site then short blurbs about what they’ve been up to. There aren’t many e-commerce sites using Twitter to increase online sales yet, but the more businesses become aware of this free service, the more likely they are to start using it.

Some examples of organizations and companies that are using Twitter, is first of all, the Red Cross, in an effort to “get info out to the public and the media”. They’ve recognized success through the use of Twitter when it came to disaster response because people are constantly following the breaking news with its direct updates. A business that has produced one million dollars in revenue this past year and a half because of sales alerts through Twitter is Dell. Twitter has a successful way of communicating with customers through messages they receive when they sign up to follow a certain company through Twitter. The airline Jet Blue has also used Twitter to its advantage by offering discounts, tickets, and additional flights based off of customer comments on Twitter, and are quick to respond to any customer criticism or praise.

  With the use of Twitter growing and spreading to more than just the everyday person, it has been suggested to Twitter to offer a premium version, and actually make some money off the services it provides. Advertising could also be a source of revenue for Twitter, with the insertion of ads into the site, in hopes that users wouldn’t complain about the constant advertising that could possibly not even target them. Overall, Twitter is used to connect people from all over the world, with the quick responses to each person’s post, it has become a very enjoyable site for many, but like always, Twitter has its critics.

I found this article interesting because we had talked about Twitter in class, and it gave me a little more insight into what the site was all about. The possibilities of this site could be endless depending on how far the creators want to go, and how much they can continue to push the site if it remains a free service. With the increasing attraction to the site, it should be interesting to see what the site evolves into in the coming years.