The Twitter IPO

Here is what I don’t get it. How can this be a good invesment if Twitter is losing $79 million a year? It looks to me that the stock was high for a company that its losing that much money year over year. I understand that Twitter has the potential to make money in the future but we don’t know how long would this take and how long would people have to keep their money invested on the stock to get a return on they money. I think those guys did a much better job then Facebook but still it would be in my view at least a couples years for twitter to be profitable and the risk is that it would some how takes longer them 2 years.

Nowadays social media is big in the market, both for marketers and consumers,and Twitter is definitely one of the most influential ones. Twitter’s IPO was a hot topic for many when the company announced that, and there were many caring about it too. most of us are living with social media, and advertisers are using the two-way communication platforms  create buzz. There are many brands joined different channels trying to create a closer and more personal relationship with their customers. Not surprising to see most Twitter’s profile came from selling online advertising, the social media market is increasing and might keep growing for long,  so understanding social media advertising is critical to many. However, comparing Twitter from other social media, it is very special to say. Firstly, Twitter is 140 character-limited per posting, and secondly it is easier and fast to be shares around, lastly, it is an amazing tool to create buzz by using tools like hashtag, which is very different from how things work on Facebook. I’ve seen different advertising campaigns on Twitter, and they are definitely powerful especially among fans.And because commercials could be spreaded very fast, and reaching a lot, companies are often using different strategies on Twitter, however, the good ones do require creativity.

I have seen these promoted tweets on Twitter and I personally don't pay much attention to them. I usually just scroll right by them and actually find them kind of annoying. I think that Twitter will start to die down in a few years just as Myspace and Facebook did, and there will be another social media site to take its place. I think the reason that Facebook has still held on is because of the ability to post numerous amounts of pictures, where as Twitter doesn't have that. I think in a few years no one will be using Twitter. 

I have seen multiple promoted tweets on twitter and honestly I don't pay much attention to them. I usually just continue to scroll my timeline without giving it any thought. When I am using twitter I am connecting with friends, checking news or the lavish life of some celebrities. I am not trying to see a promotion. I think Twitter will be as or more successful as Facebook and Google. Twitter has 215 million users and this is exactly where companies want to put their campaign. 

I've seen numerous promoted tweets on Twitter. Honestly I think that promoted tweets are pretty annoying. I follow certain people because I'm interested in what they have to say, not some random advertisement. I never really read a promoted tweet on twitter, I just skim over it. I think twitter will grow as people hear more and more about it. I think twitters long term goal is to have more people use it and be able to advertise more at the same time to make more money. LinkedIn and Google+  will continue to grow as well, right now I just think that they're very new to most people. LinkedIn, Google+, and twitter all have different purposes. As more people learn about them they will continue to grow. 

I have seen promoted tweets showing in my twitter flows as well as promoted twitter account on the "who to follow" and "trends" column. To be honest, it is quite unpleasant and annoying to see something I don't want on my page, but I understand those business actions and won't leave twitter. Compared with Facebook and Google+, twitter is the best way to get update news. And twitter is the most convenient way to reach the brand and company and get replied. As a consumer, I'll also treat twitter as the favorite way to respond to the companies and brands. I treat LinkedIn more professionally and Facebook more socially, while twitter combines all my self-images: the professional one, the social one, the art one, etc.

Since I am not a Twitter user, I do not know how it works. However, celebrities use Twitter to hear from people who are interested in them. I guess it will be a good way to interact with people. I am sure Twitter will grow like Facebook, but not sure about LinkedIn or Google+. They are too new and people like me are think they already have account in other two, so they might think it is unnecessary to make another account in those websites.

I have promoted tweets on twitter before to Japanese pop star Leah Dizon and actually got a response. She posed for a photo of her with our name written over her twit pic. I think reaching out to her on twitter was very helpful in our networking endeavors. I see twitter becoming something more common in the future. I predict people will use twitter to comment on more live tv content because smart tv’s are becoming more popular.

It is clear that the new age of advertising is going to be VIA social media. The first social media ads i had ever seen were on facebook becuase it was the first and only social media site i had been apart of for a while. I just used to use facebook for social purposes, sharing with friends and whatnot and then i began to see advertisments on my news feed. I didnt think much of it, but then the advertisments began to continue and take up a larger portion of my news feed. Now that i have read this I am beginging to recall advertisments i have seen on twitter. Thinking about it now the number of advertisments i have seen on my twitter feed had greatley increased. I usually just skip over them when going through my news feed. On the off chance i do take notice to these advertisments they usually shoot me to another page, so I dont like to look at them usually. 

I think twitters long term goals and prospects are to combine twitter for social use and incorperate an advertising as a half function. I think its goal is to refine its target audiences in accordince with certain ads and make sure ads show up on peoples feeds with interestes pertaining to that ad. For example sports advertisments on feeds of people who tweet about sports or who are interested in sports. I think its great that twitter is making sales in advertisments and that sales are increasing, i also think they have room for growth but i hope they dont get too carried away and swamp peoples feeds with ads. 

I have never noticed any promoted tweets on Twitter. I feel that when I am browsing through Facebook, they seem to stand out more to me. However, I rarely take the time to read them or even click on them. I feel like Twitter continues to be one of the top social media outlets in society. Based on the numbers showing that Twitter is increasing ad revenue, I can only imagine that their long-term prospects are positive. I believe that Twitter will remain popular with social media users, as will LinkedIn and Google+. All three of these outlets are used for different purposes, making each of them popular for certain reasons. Comparing Twitter's future to Facebook's, I think that Twitter will stay in the loop while Facebook might eventually fizzle out. I think that Facebook's main audience is starting to lean toward an older demographic, and I think that Twitter is a younger one. I think that people will start slowly switching over to Google+, just as people switched from MySpace to Facebook just a few years ago.

The new thing with Twitter promoting tweets is not something im too excited about. When I see the Ads, i just keep scrolling down as though i did not even see them. It does not spark my interest at all. I feel like if i wanted to look and search some of the things i would on my own. The only advantage i think it could have is if you did not know about something and saw it for the first time on the Twitter Ads, and it sparked an interest. 

As I am not a frequent Twitter user, I do not have much background knowledge about their promoted tweets. But I have heard from some users that most of the promoted tweets are irrelevant to them. Most of the users tend to ignore the tweets or simply skim through the content without much attention. As most of Twitter's revenue comes from online advertising, Twitter's future could be quite unstable. There are many social media networks that also promotes online advertising such as Facebook. Compared to Facebook, I think Twitter needs to develop a genuine and more advanced technique if it were to compete and succeed against other social media networking sites.

I have seen (and ignored) many promoted tweets on Twitter. Occasionally they will consist of something relevant, but most often the content is random and unnecessary. Personally, I would be interested to follow tweets promoted by my favorite clothing brand or sports team. Promoted tweets could be more beneficial if they were geared toward specific users who tweet using hashtags or key words associated with the company. Even though I consider this to be a flaw, I still believe that the long-term potential is looking good for Twitter. It is hands down the best way to share quick information, photos, videos, and links. Facebook and LinkedIn have their strengths as well, and I do not see any of them losing steam. Each site continues to adapt and grow to please a generation that is constantly searching for the nest best thing. As long as Twitter continues to evolve, it will remain a primary contender of social media.

Twitter become more and more powerful in today's world and it is one of the most important socail media platforms for company to distribute promoted informations and Ads. Now Twitter going to IPO, in the way, Twitter will increase its brand value and expand their impact to the social media world. It also will attract more people to focus on Twitter. In my opinion, I prefer promoted tweets from Twitter than any other type Ads, these ads are native and do not disturb me. Anyway, I like Twitter. 

Most promoted tweets on twitter to me are not worth stopping my scroll. They are no valuable to me what so ever. However I will contradict myself by saying that when promoting athletic events as opposed to sales and products, I will get intrigued. I am unsure of what the future is looking like for Twitter in regards to its competition in Facebook and other social networks. Yet I feel that eventually one site will be a combination of all these sites and allow for ultimate searching, ads, promotions, and interactions.

I personally find Twitter's promoted tweets to be intrusive and abrasive, yet easily avoided. I can simply scroll past one and completely ignore it. However, I have found myself clicking advertisments out of curiosity because it did seem relavant to my interests. 

I have seen the promoted tweets on my Twitter newsfeed from time to time. Thankfully I only see a few at a time, but if Twitter continues to generate more promoted tweets I think it will create a disinterest in the amount of Twitter users each day. Right now I don't mind the promoted tweets, but if they continue to generate more I will be much more disinterested to use Twitter on a daily basis. Personally, I think Twitter still has promising long-term prospects. Even though Facebook is more popular, Twitter is still one of the top social media websites. In my opinion Google+ does not have a huge following and should be the one that’s questioned on its long-term prospects. I’m interested to see if Google+ continues to grow in popularity or never reaches the height of Facebook and Twitter.

As the years have progressed, it was been an interested to me to watch the promotion on twitter change. The advertisements and promotions on twitter provide the site with profit, and to be honest every social media website has click through rate advertisements. I do not mind them, as long as they are something that I can relate to. The ones from companies that come with importance to me are companies that I am familiar with. I am intrigued by how well they can target me based on what I click on, who I follow and what I tweet about.

However, on the other hand, the advertisements on twitter have never lead to me buy anything. I definitely think that twitter will be in existence for a long time. The niche that twitter has a handle on, does not have any room for any other competitors to come in and steal the show. 

As the years have progressed, it was been an interested to me to watch the promotion on twitter change. The advertisements and promotions on twitter provide the site with profit, and to be honest every social media website has click through rate advertisements. I do not mind them, as long as they are something that I can relate to. The ones from companies that come with importance to me are companies that I am familiar with. I am intrigued by how well they can target me based on what I click on, who I follow and what I tweet about.

However, on the other hand, the advertisements on twitter have never lead to me buy anything. I definitely think that twitter will be in existence for a long time. The niche that twitter has a handle on, does not have any room for any other competitors to come in and steal the show. 

I have seen the promotional tweets on Twitter, and they don't particularly bother me since they normally are relavent to me in some kind of way. Compared to the other social media, I see twitter not lasting as long. Lets be real, Facebook is here to stay, and what is Twitter, other than another way to post a status and get your thoughts out there? Like MySpace, and other failed attempts, I feel like Twitter will be a passing fad in the Social Media circle. 

It is interesting to me to see how the Twitter world excels each year. Personally I believe that I have only seen an increase and that it has only gotten nothing but more popular throughout the years. I used to believe that Facebook always over shined Twitter, but now a days  If feel it is becoming otherwise. I think this is possibly happening because of how risky Facebook has become. Future employers are cracking down more than ever on peoples Facebook pictures and bio opposed to jsut watching your lingo on Twitter. Twitter has become more than just a place to update your status, but also to be kept up all the latest news and what you want to stay focused on. Twitter has become more about you than the website itself. Just about every celebrity and news channel has a Twitter so that biggest fans are able to consistantly stay updated on there where abouts along with celebrity status's that this day in age is most focused on and most concerned about. I personally enjot Facebook more, becuase I do not feel the world needs to know where I am at all times. I am more about staying updating with close friends and family, and keeping my profile as personal as possible.

I have seen the promotions on twitter, and I don't mind them most of the time. As long as they are something that I can relate to. I've seen specific ones from companies that interest me and ones that do not interest me, the problem is that they aren't always targeting they are just paying to get a tweet out to promote their product. I think that they can work, because they specificillay have an spot on the bottom that show that it is a promotion and I think that alone brings attention to the tweet, and because the tweet is so short that they can be easily read, and they can put the information in usefully they can easily be successfull.

The promoted tweets on Twitter are normally just bypassed as I scroll down on my computer screen. However, these tweets are generating the most revenue for Twitter overall because this is the way that the company uses internet advertising. It is surprising to read that Twitter can generate nearly $221 million through internet advertising in the first half of 2013, but still have such a large net loss of nearly $70 million in the same year. I personally check twitter or tweet often, and I know my friends and co-workers do. I would imagine that with over 215 million users Twitter would be better off revenue wise. The new Twitter IPO should raise the overall revenue the company is able to generate without internet ads because it is such a large part of the social media world and the general public in the new age of technology. Banks will compete to get on the hottest IPO of the year, and Twitter will get a good deal in the end.

I am new to Twitter as of the beginning of September, so I am still getting used to the platform.  I have noticed the promoted tweets.  Since I’m new, my list of tweeps that I follow is still fairly short (161 following), and I know most of them.  The ones I don’t know personally are names I recognize from my classes, so when I see a tweet from someone I don’t recognize, it really catches my eye.  I look more closely at these tweets, and they turn out to either be retweets by people I know or promotional tweets.  For some reason, I am always disappointed when they are promotional tweets – I don’t think I have ever followed a company because of a promotional tweet. 

Like all great civilizations, I believe that Twitter too will one day crumble and fall, along with its “partners-in-crime” Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.  Nothing lasts forever, particularly in our society today.  I think the foreshadowing for this fall can be seen in Twitter’s net losses.  I was blown away to see that 2012’s net loss was $79 million and that Twitter has over 2,000 full-time employees.  What can they possibly all be doing and spending money on?

I have seen promoted tweets on Twitter, and unfortunately they always aggravate me. I feel that, if I was interested in what a company or brand had to say, I would follow them on my own accord. Having their content forced onto my Twitter feed only makes me want to look at them less. I know that probably sounds ironic coming from an advertising major, but I think with social media it is important to interact with followers who are interested in you, not drive them away because you’re being irritating. I think Twitter has a chance to succeed after going public as long as they continue to be innovative and don’t push advertisements on their sites excessively. 

I have seen promoted tweets on Twitter and am usually intrigued by how well they can usually target me based on who I follow and what I tweet about. Ads on twitter have never led me to purchase anything, neither have celebrities who are clearly endorsing a product in a tweet. I definitely think that Twitter will be viable for a long time, it doesn't seem like there is much room for new networks to create a niche. Google+ is a great network, its only problem is the fact that no one is on it. There may be a migration from facebook to Google+ as they are more similiar, but I don't forsee much a of a threat to Twitter.

I actually haven't seen many promoted tweets on Twitter but I assume it's because i don't check Twitter very frequently. But those advertising always annoys me when I'm using facebook. The reason is it is distracting and it always hinders me from my original purpose of using facebook, which is socializing and connecting with people. However, as Twitter has become so popular in the past years, I feel every surprised to know that they went through a finance struggle. To me, it seems like there was a lack of planning on their part. Twitter's long-term prospects may be with promoted tweets, but I don't think it would be very long-lasting. They need to incorporate another aspect to twitter that works with these businesses who want to be promoted. Seeing a "forced tweet" doesn't make me any more interested in a business or product.

I have seen promoted tweets on Twitter, but I usually just ignore them. They kind of get lost in the other tweets on my page, usually because I am not interested in what they are. Twitter does have the ability to generate a lot of revenue, though, I think. It isn't a bad place for ads by any means, tithe, since there are millions of people using it every day. I think that because it has become so easy to use and so many people use it, they don't have to worry about not making money. The only downside that I see, really, is how do you take something that is already so smplified, and extend its capabilites.

As I am a frequent Twitter user I have been seeing the promoted tweets on Twitter very often. Even though I do not lick on them or acess them I think it is a very useful way for a business/company to promote itself. Promoted tweets can be targeted at certain interests/genders, geography, and even the device a person is using to access Twitter. So everyone is seeing different promoted tweets depending on who they are. They are also very easy to recognize on the Twitter newsfeed. I think Twitter has the ability to see long-standing success in today's social media market. Most of my friends and family have already begun to sya how FaceBook is becoming boring, and monotonous. Twitter is meant to be fun and fresh, and the fast paced atmosphere it provides is something that I feel is very unique. 

I can honestly say that Twitter is one of my least used social media venues. I have seen some promoted tweets, but I don't really pay attention to them. I have however noticed an increase in celebrity profiles and big ad faces (Flo from progressive), with certified twitter accounts. I think that whoever invented the idea of paying for a site by selling ads was a genius plan, but I hate that advertisements must be a part of everyday life. There are so many companies and products out there, I'm not suprised that Twitter has succumbed to the ad fad. I truly think that selling adspace is necessary now and as a consumer, I understand it, but I don't like it. I think that Twitter may take Facebook's place. I think Google+ will stay around because Google is so big and LinkedIn is more professional so unless something better comes out in that genre, it should stick around for a while too. Twitter is perfect for advertising because everything is straight to the point becaue there is a limit to the amount of characters that can be used in every tweet. Twitter will rise up, especially now that it is and advertising central.

As a daily user of Twitter, I have seem many promoted Tweets on Twitter.  What I like about them is that they are clearly identified as sponsored tweets.  They also clearly identify which hashtags are sponsored and which ones are actually trending.  The fact that Twitter's ad revenue is continuing to grow is not surprising to me.  In fact, I feel as Twitter does an excellent job with their ads.  Unlike Facebook, most of their sponsored tweets are at the top of your feed whereas with Facebook I often find them in the middle of my feed.  I bring this up because as a user it seems as though Facebook is trying to hide their ads to make me think that one of my friends or pages are posting them, which I see as a form of dishonesty.  In regard to long-term prospects for Twitter, I feel as though they will be just fine, especially given the "not-so-personal" aspect of Twitter.  In fact, most of the things I follow on Twitter are news outlets, companies, sports and entertainment entities, and anons.  That's not to say I don't follow my friends, I just mean that because a lot of non-personal tweets are on my feed it leads me to believe companies will be able to continue to benefit from this in regard to their advertsing means.

I am extremely surprised to see that Twitter is losing money. I don't personally use it for anything but school work, but I know a lot of people that do. The appeal I see to Twitter rather than having a Google+ account is that it offers something more unique than the differences between Google+ and Facebook. It's the place to post your one-liners and, seemingly, also a place to complain about things for a lot of people. I feel that it stands a much better chance of surviving than Google+, which a very small number of my friends use and that didn't seem to create a great deal of buzz when it was first promoted. 

I have seen the promoted tweets and I'd much rather have sidebars with ads in them. 

The promoted tweets encroach on the whole Twitter-browsing experience. If I wanted to know what McDonalds had to say that day, I would follow McDonalds. Despite my feelings toward it, the McDonalds tweet I just mentioned has 156 retweets and 163 favorites. Regardless of how annoying I find them to be, they may just do the trick and save Twitter some money.

Being a Twitter user I have definitely seen the promoted tweets popping up more and more. I think that they are a good idea but a lot of them are skipped over due to the overwhelming amount of tweets on most users feed. I think that Twitters long-term prospects compared to the other most popular social media sites are very similar. The more advertising that Twitter can sell the more profits they can make. However the key to being as successful profit wise as Facebook, is to find a way to have users promote tweets without outright selling the tweet. In order to have users support for these promoted tweets, companies have to offer an incentive to retweet or favorite the promoted tweet. It will be interesting to see the strategies that Twitter and companies advertising on Twitter use to more effectively promote tweets. 

I don’t use twitter too often. So I went on it looking for ads after reading this post. I saw a Walking Dead ad promoted by windows. Naturally, my eyes just skim over the ads and I don’t actually read them. More and more ads have been entering the social media world. Since social media is a big part of everyone’s daily lives, advertising on the sites is a no brainer. Yes, it is annoying for all the users, but if the sites want to make any kind of money they need to display the ads, and they need to do a lot of it.

I am shocked to hear twitter is having financial issues. All of my friends are on twitter regularly and I always hear them say they like twitter more than Facebook. If twitter died out, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I do believe the other 215 million users would care though. 

I have seen promoted tweets on Twitter and I don't really pay any attention to them. It's obvious when a tweet doesn't belong (it says promoted tweet at the top) or isn't of my interest (the picture is unrecognizable) and most of the time I ignore them. I love Twitter and I don't like to hear that it's losing so much money because that runs the risk of them going out of business and we will no longer have access, so hopefully they sell more and more ads to become out of the negatives and become a successful company. Long-term prospects - I don't think it will be as successful as LinkedIn business wise, Facebook will always be #1, and Google+ I don't see as a competitor because I don't feel like many people even use it.

I think promotions on Twitter is a great idea for their marketing. Twitter owes most of it's success to the users. Like any social media, Twitter relies heavily on it's users. Many users are companies, hoping to create more brand awareness, and are willing to pay. Why not bank on the opportunity? Advertisements are huge on other websites. Banner ads, promoted tweets...it's all advertising and even though it may seem annoying to some users, it still has some positive effects. I'm not saying if someone jumps off a bridge that you should too, but if everyone else is selling ad space, why not join the club? 

I think advertising in this social media sites have been growing in the previous years. I think that seeing an advertising in twitter or facebook is becoming a natural thing to see on an everyday social media. This media is becoming the most important part of our lives since we are on it everyday and to be successful in these days businesses are using it to reach us more than ever. I think it is a great idea for Twitter to try to approach the advertisement part. Also listening that Twitter has a lot of monetary issues concern me. I believed Twitter was one of the social media that was on their way up, seeing that other businesses like Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are better shocked me. Also I think that the reason for this is that the other three social medias are better when you are approaching businesses, that why I think they look better for the future.

I think it is a smart business move for twitter to sell advertising, but their layout makes it confusing. I am someone who doesn't follow a lot of people on twitter because I like to actually read everything that shows up on my feed. When these ads show up it confuses me because I don't follow these companies. If they reformated parts of the site to have ads somewhere else so I don't think someone hacked my account and followed random people or something. 

It was surprising when I was reading in the news about how bad the financial troubles were for Twitter. I knew they had issues, but it is so surprising to see such a growing social media network be losing so much money. I am on twitter more than I care to admit, and there are plenty of people who use it more than me. If it were to fail or disappear, I would obviously survive, but it would be very upsetting. If the company doesn't turn things around I don't see how much of a chance they have at outlasting sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+. 

I'm always confused when all of sudden, I see a promotion tweet on my Twitter feed.  I think to myself, "I don't follow this brand/person", "why is this here?".  I've known about Twitter's financial troubles for quite some time and was curious to what they would do to get out of it.  It's ironic that such a booming creative business has such a high net loss. 

 I beleive it's harder to sell advertising on Twitter than a medium like Facebook because of the layout and viewing ability of the user (the ad-.  Facebook can use images in advertisements whereas Twitter is limited to one font, one or two colors (if there's a hashtag/link), and advertisers may be hesitant to invest in Twitter because of those factors, which is/will hurt them as a business.

I actually have not seen a huge amount of promoted tweets on Twitter but I am assuming that is because I dont follow many companies.  But when I do see promoted tweets I wonder how many people act on them.  I wonder if people go out and buy products solely because of a tweet. I feel that Twitter is becoming the most popular social network so I feel that it has a bright future in the promotional aspect.  I also wonder peoples motives when following a business on Twitter.  I wonder if they look for promotions, humor or just day to day random tweets about the business.  If I were to run a business Twitter, I would do my best to incorporate humor in my tweets to capture the audiences attention. 

I was so surprised that Twitter had a financial problem because many people nowadays are using Twitter, so I thought they could easily earn money by advertising. I have a Twitter account, but I rarely use it, so I have not seen any promoted tweets. However, I have seen many promotions and advertisements in Facebook. I do not want to be forced to see advertisements and promotions. I personally think the reason why people are hard to see promoted tweets is in Twitter, people only could see what they follow. In Facebook, I could easily see promotions because my Facebook friends liked them, or sometimes Facebook presents what I saw on online stores and this makes me sick. Therefore, Twitter should find other plans to make revenue in a way that people could not feel disgusting about the advertisements. 

I have seen the promotions tweets when I use the twitter. When some ads which I am interested came out on the twitter, sometimes, I was curious how they recognized what I was interested. On the other hands, It did not really make me feel bad. Also, sometimes when I have seen the advertisements which I really wanted to look for on the twitter, it was very helpful to me. Twitter is getting even bigger, and more developed continually compared to the other social medias such as facebook, or LinkedIn. Twitter keeps making corporations with other companies that make their businesses better and bigger. If the twitter’s online advertising bothers me, I would not use the twitter’s platform and support it, but as the advertising gives me a real interest, I will keep support what they are doing.

Honestly I have seen more news about the Twitter IPO, than I have seen on actual Twitter!! FRom what I've been reading Facebook did something similiar- I found this article that actually compares the two.(http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/04/twitter-vs-facebook-ipo-in-one-chart) On of the largest negative arguements against Twitter, mentions that it has far less users than Facebook did when it doing the same thing. The chart in the article above states that FAcebook had around 901 Million users, while Twitter fails to even come close to that at a meager 210 million. However, t the same time Facebook got a lot of flack for choosing IPO, but now looking back it was a good decision for the blossiming company at the time. Facebook was able to lower their stock so much that the average american would be able to purchase a share, and in the end Facebook made a lot of people, a lot of money.

Usually I don't like promoted tweets in my feed. If they are eye-catching, I may take a look; if not, I would definitely pray for not seeing them any more. However, for twitter's business, advertising is the source of the money whcih is often the way many social media websites survive and benefit. The point is, promoted messages should be creative or at least pertinent to certain users. Tracking is widely used but I don't know whether it's twitter doesn't use it or they use it in a wrong way, the promoted tweets in my feeds never interest me. The tweets don't interest me, and aren't pertinent to my passion. So it could be a better way to get more attention and click if twitter conducts some research on what users like and what their browsing habits are, then target them with customized promoted tweets. 

In the competition, twitter has a smaller user population and many of them are "straw" accounts without any tweets and rarely log in. With low retention rate, twitter should focus on their core business to keep current users first. Then go with the content and creativity of the promotin, to make them appealing and interesting. 

As popular as Twitter has become in the past few years, its really surprising to me that they went through a financial struggle. To me, it seems as though there was a lack of planning on their part. Even though their ad sales have increased tremendously in the past three years, it still seems like they have a ways to go. In my opinion, there aren't nearly as many ads and promotions on Twitter as there are Facebook. Even though I can barely stand Facebook most of the time (for this reason), they are getting the information and advertisement out there. There may be a few reasons for this. The first that comes to mind is that most people who use Facebook daily get on from their computer (while still checking updates from their smartphones of course). Comparing from my own activity, 90% of the time I'm checking Twitter from my phone on-the-go not sitting down at my computer. Smartphones are limited to really getting advertisements out there when these social medias are downloaded as Apps because you are not viewing the full site-therefore, not seeing all of the advertisements. 

I think Twitter will be popular for a long time, and if done right mililons of more dollars sold in ads per year. I have definitely noticed more promotional tweets for companies in the past year, than when I first opened my account about 3 years ago, and this has probably been a huge help for their revenue!

I'm surprised that Twitter is financially struggling as much as they are. Although I have a Twitter profile, I do not browse through Twitter posts very often. Therefore, I haven't noticed any promoted tweets (especially compared to the recent outbreak of promoted Facebook and Tumblr posts). I suppose it makes sense. Twitter has always been a very open platform for users to create what they wanted without interference from advertisements. Facebook has also essentially been quite open (even with advertisments and sponsered/promoted posts) and yet they have become an incredibly successful organization. I suppose online organizations must fine a good equilibrium between creating what users want and sustaining their own business, a task that Twitter has not been doing particularly well on since its creation. Although it does seem to be doing a bit better, business-wise, I still do not think it will ever reach the financial success of Facebook or LinkedIn. I believe that Twitter is currently straddeling the line between failing as a corporation and remaining a common household social network.

I have been hesitant to compare these companies to Google+ so far because that seems to be in a league of its own, at the moment. Although I like the interface that Google+ offers users and probably even prefer it to Facebook, the problem is that it does not recieve nearly as much traffic as the formerly mentioned social networking sites. Although it is well known, I don't know anyone that feels pressured to post anything onto their Google+ page. Facebook is still the tried and true home for most web-interaction for both individuals and businesses. Although I hope that Google+ has an opportunity to get closer to Facebook's popularity, they still remain the "little brother" of the web.

This is a topic I really enjoy talking about. I've been on twitter since 2009 and have really enjoyed seeing it grow over the last couple years. I've definitely seen promoted tweets on my feed, quite frequently as of late. Personally I'm not a huge fan of them, but I can see how they would be effective. To me, Twitter is more of a personal social media platform and I enjoy reading through tweets of people who I enjoy keeping up with. Seeing promoted tweets is almost a "turn-off" for me when it comes to the app as a whole. Even though the ad's are often targeted, I just see them as other tweets getting in my way of what I really want to see. Twitter's long-term prospects may be with promoted tweets, but I don't see it lasting very long. They need to incorporate another aspect to twitter that works with these businesses who want to be promoted. Seeing a "forced tweet" doesn't make me any more interested in a business or product. Just isn't the app for it. Way more personal.

I have notice the promotion tweets on twitter however they do not really bother me. I have a tendency to stroll through twitter a lot of the time and not really pay attention to who is tweeting what and what is really being said. In order for me to really pay attention to a tweet, it really has to catch my eye especially if you are not one of my friends. If on a certain day I decide to read each tweet on my feed and I do come across a promotion, it must have really caught my eye and be something I am interested in.

            I think having these promotion tweets are both great for Twitter and the products/companies that are using advertising on Twitter. I have noticed more and more of my friends ditching Facebook for Twitter. However, I think if companies are going to use Twitter for promotions they really need to catch the consumer’s eye. They cannot just have boring, regular everyday Tweets and something really needs to stand out.  A lot of people on Twitter follow companies/products they like. If the company tweets something creative or something I think is funny, I find myself re-tweeting them. This information is being passed to my followers, and so on and so forth. This is giving the company advertisement with out doing too much work.

            Like I said above I think Facebook is dying and Twitter is becoming more popular. It is a lot easier to use and is less time consuming. You can do a lot more with Facebook, and with this day and age I think the simpler the better. Also, Facebook has been around for so long I think it is slowing dying finally. I believe in the end Twitter does have the long-term prospect of eventually being compared to Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.  

I have seen promoted tweets on Twitter, but they don’t really bother me. When scrolling through my Twitter, I only read the things that catch my eye. If there is a promoted Tweet that doesn’t interest me, I will just scroll past it and read other tweets. If it does catch my eye, then it was probably something I am interested in and the advertisement is useful or beneficial to me. Most of the time though I don’t even notice that the tweets are promoted tweets since I follow so many people who tweet about countless different things and retweet many other people.  I think that this is probably a good thing for the advertisers. We follow people, companies, and things that we like or that are influential. If there is a tweet buried in our twitter feed that we think came from one of these influential people that we follow (when really it is just a promoted tweet), we might be more influenced by the message in the promoted tweet. Also if the promoted tweet is something you are interested in, you might click on it, realize you’re not following them and then they gain a follower who will read more of their tweets. I just scrolled down my twitter feed to find the promoted tweets and one of them that caught my eye was VSPINK that says—“Homecoming this Saturday, Michigan State! Gear up for the big home game in the @VSPINK Collegiate Collection”. I recognize this tweet because I clicked on it yesterday (I didn’t realize it was a promoted tweet at the time) and found myself browsing through their website.  I think that Twitter is a great place for companies to advertise. Many people already follow companies that they like on Twitter and want to receive information and updates about their favorite brands. Twitter is personally my favorite of the social media sites listed and I think that many others feel the same (well at least in my circle of friends). People are constantly scrolling down Twitter and refreshing their feed. I think that it has better long term prospects than Facebook because I rarely use Facebook now other than to post pictures. I find that I get most of my information now from Twitter and I like it for that reason—it gives me so much information that I otherwise probably wouldn’t come across. I’m not surprised that Twitter became publically traded as it seems that is what social media sites are now doing—in the long run though, it might end up becoming obsolete when the next new big thing comes around unless they do something to keep up.