BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Twitter, as a social network makes use of its global platform for the purpose of public self-expression as well as conversation in real time. Moreover, through developing new ways through which people can use to create, distribute and discover content, this site claims to have democratized the creation and distribution of this content hence allowing any voice to echo around the globe instantly and unfiltered.
Should Twitter start charging individual users for usage?
Yes, the management authority of Twitter should start charging individual users for using their site. The reason for suggesting so is because of various considerations which can be made about this social media. First, it should be noted that with globalization, vast majority of business organizations are using it and a lot o individuals are following them. In so doing, such companies keeps on popularizing themselves to their customers hence increasing their returns while the site is gaining nothing (Wright & O.U.P, 2015). Therefore, there is the need of identifying ways of making such an experience more valuable as well as charging for commercial accounts.
This is not a surprise but it can be cited as one of the apparent move its management authority could make so as to start generating revenue. It has been noted that majority of the users who have become notorious had been expecting more from its startup as well as blaming it for the lack of noticeable business model after its existence. Such a move will in return assist in creating revenue-generating features which will aid in tapping into the way various brands use Twitter as a hybrid customer-service and marketing tool (Funk, 2011).
With technological advancements, charging individual users for the usage of Twitter platform would be a better means of improving its performance. Various online companies are extensively making better use of Twitter to better service their customers. In so doing, it is believed the best route for this is then to ensure that all these companies which desire to run Twitter within their company wall i.e. much as Google has with Google Apps, pay for the services they get. Yet, there is a genuine additional product. The marketing of some of them have already been half-done because of the general popularity of Twitter more especially all these companies have some kind of Twitter evangelist (Wright & O.U.P, 2015). This is then goes for the real enterprise market in which money is spent on useful corporate apps and this is where Twitter comes in.
Nonetheless, for this app to exist on the long-run, it will be forced to serve as many people as possible. As stated above, celebrities and big brands have been gaining a lot of followers thus adding a lot of value to the Twitter concept. Conversely, still there exists variety of business model in case one has millions of people on Twitter. Twitter keeps on offering premium accounts to Individuals and business organizations where they can be able to post special tweets for example lay out and so on (Funk, 2011). Similarly, there is the provision of pimp-accounts from Twitter which are very attractive to the youths. This keeps them alert and continuously socializing around the globe and thus for one to have special performance of this feature, he or she should be made to pay for it. This is what will make this App to growing and that should be their business model.
Deciding to charge individual or business Twitter accounts I believe should not be something to debate upon because it is still the same platform for various online social networks. Contrary to that, to some extent, it is suggested that differentiating between business and personal use is somehow difficult as it is a very grey line. This is to say that not only it will be interesting to see the main revenue model Twitter will run with, but it will also be an interesting exercise of deciding on the fine details which will dictate the manner in which individuals companies and personal accounts will be charged (Parmelee & Bichard, 2012).
In addition to that, some of the individual social media companies for instance Facebook, which consists of a much more conventional audience, continues to adopt some of the compelling features of Twitter. This in return have declined the value o Twitter through retaining audience as well as implementing the above said features on a platform that family or close circle of friends of the user/s are comfortable using. Despite the fact that there is the need of unifying the login systems for the two platforms, Twitter should do this on some payments and through aggregating more data- the same information that it turns around and sells.
Consequently, charging individual users of Twitter accounts/platforms means that the company is taking the right step. This is one of many business organization models which are used to monetize their services. Typically, what they need to foster this is to be able to charge individual business or individual accounts as well as verifying that this is the real business and given them more functionality for example the analytics of their mainstream (Parmelee & Bichard, 2012). In so doing, it means that it would be a great method of getting its foot in the door as far as making money is concerned.
Discuss the pros and cons of charging individual users
Pros
As stated above, charging individual users means that the Twitter Company can be in the position of creating revenue-generating features extensively. Conversely in the process of tapping its benefit into the manner in which the brand use of this application, it means that its users will be motivated about it.
Moreover, charging individual users means that its esteemed can be in the position of maintaining its loyalty with this media regardless of the current completion it is facing. The incorporation of the modern technology in improving its effectiveness means that the company will be in the position of competing favorably with its rivals in the communication industry (Agarwal et al, 2014).
Equally, charging individual users means that the revenue base of the company will increase to the extent of using it in meeting its daily operating expenses as well as maintaining its capital base of meeting its expenses.
On the other hand, since such an idea is still young to implement, still the company has nothing to share despite the recent surge in speculation. Therefore, regardless of the fact that it is noted above as being a step in the right direction, taking such a move quickly doesn’t mean that the management authority will be in the position of solving all of the Twitter problems
Nonetheless, for this app to exist on the long-run, it will be forced to serve as many people as possible. As stated above, celebrities and big brands have been gaining a lot of followers thus adding a lot of value to the Twitter concept. Charging them, therefore, could be a wrong step to take since as much as they have millions of followers they can start their own social media like Twitter after all. For instance Google Tweets and Disney Tweeters could end up attracting as much as people as Twitter have right now in a short period of time. This kind of competition will make it to lose its popularity with time (Agarwal et al, 2014).
Despite the perceived advantages of charging individual users, there are chances that the returns might be prone to various sentiments from investors as well as market play hence making the underlying factors to change. On the other hand, user growth and engagement majorly depends on the effective interoperation with the operating system, devices, networks, web browsers, or standards which Twitter doesn’t control (Biagi, 2013). Taking the above step means that there is the possibility of the operating and business result to harmed through the normal disruption of its services. This will also be as a result of not effectively adapting to the existing technology and social media infrastructure.
Recommendation
Despite the above considerations together with the advantages and disadvantages of charging individual users, it is crucial to recognize that whatever its management authority will come up with will typically remain free for use by celebrities, companies, individuals and so on. Therefore, what the managers should think about is basically adding value in all places in which they see attraction and not immediately imposing charges on existing services or users (Biagi, 2013).
Likewise, in order to for the above objective to be realized, there should be some special functionality which will come with such an account for instance automatically showing tweets in individuals’ listing, in spite of whether he or she is following that twitter account. Additionally, the management authority should not immediately or retroactively take the above step of charging individuals for using their services. What needs to be done is first charging users for the features that only power individuals are likely to want, for instance advanced verification, analytics and other.
Twitter should not retroactively embark on charging individuals for using its service. This somehow feels unnecessarily penalizing them even though they are gaining free value off tweeting (Shapiro & Jacobs, 2011). The company could have thought about that idea through monetization of the corporation earlier. Instead, there is the need of building the oft-discussed tier system. This is a free service which incorporates the volume usage plan. This is will enhance profile options; user analytics as well as other clever things which will enable it enjoy the economies of scale.
Bibliography
In Wright, E., & Oxford University Press. (2015). A dictionary of world history
Funk, T. (2011). Social Media Playbook for Business: Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and More. Westport: ABC-CLIO
Parmelee, J. H., & Bichard, S. L. (2012). Politics and the Twitter revolution: How tweets influence the relationship between political leaders and the public. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books.
In Agarwal, N., In Lim, M., & In Wigand, R. T. (2014). Online collective action: Dynamics of the crowd in social media
Shapiro, R. Y., & Jacobs, L. R. (2011). The Oxford handbook of American public opinion and the media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Biagi, S. (2013). Media/impact: An introduction to mass media. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
