Entrepreneurship has taken a new turn with the onset of industrialization and computerization. Long before the introduction of these two, entrepreneurship was a less common word that was limited to the business-oriented individuals. The introduction of social sites has seen a major breakthrough in the field of entrepreneurship (Abrahamson 1997).
Social sites have facilitated easy advertisement and access to millions of prospective customers across the globe. One such social site that has contributed to the tremendous growth of entrepreneurship over the last few years is Twitter.
This report will look at the advantages and limitations of Twitter as far as its technological configuration of providing an open source arena and limiting messages to one hundred and forty characters is concerned.
Countless entrepreneurs have found marketing their products and services via Twitter as a viable means of advertisement. Indeed, hundreds of opportunities are advertised daily on twitter for both buyers and sellers.
Twitter has enabled entrepreneurs and other business organizations to acquire loyal customers (Amit and Zott 2001). In the same manner, buyers have been able to find sellers of their choice through the social site. Therefore, twitter has been of great significance to not only the entrepreneurs, but to the buyers as well.
The use of Twitter has been favoured by the entrepreneurs for various reasons. First and foremost, Twitter’s “Re-tweet” feature helps to spread the information faster as compared to other social networks (Scott 1991). This feature enables entrepreneurs to reach millions of prospective clients in a few minutes.
This is especially possible where the entrepreneurs have huge numbers of followers (Leinhardt 1977). The original tweet by the entrepreneurs can be re-tweeted by their followers and their followers’ followers and the chain continues.
Eventually, the original information released by the entrepreneurs will be spread to almost every part of the globe (Baker 1990). This fast conveyance of information is a great advantage to the entrepreneurs.
Another advantage of twitter is attributed to its cheap cost of advertising compared to other methods of advertisement. Because many entrepreneurs advertise their goods and services using Twitter, this has made the cost of advertisement to be lower hence making it more affordable to the entrepreneurs.
Twitter is also the cheapest means of advertisement compared to television advertisement and other forms of advertisement. This affordability of the costs of advertising on twitter is an advantage to the entrepreneurs who obviously seek a cost effective method of advertisement (Fiskel 1980).
Twitter has many users from virtually each nation on earth. With an approximate of over three hundred and sixty two million users, Twitter is certainly the best place for entrepreneurs to advertise their products (Tapscott 2000).
Entrepreneurs make use of a variety of business models to access this large number of users and turn them into customers (Stokes, Wilson and Mador 2010). One such model is the Bricks and Clicks Business Model. Under this model, entrepreneurs allow Twitter users to order for products via Twitter.
The users however have to go to the entrepreneurs’ stores to pick the ordered products. This model is effective especially where the users are located in the entrepreneurs’ locality.
The Online Auction Business Model is also extensively used by entrepreneurs on Twitter in their transactions. In this model, entrepreneurs advertise a service or product on sale on Twitter and then provide room for Twitter users interested in it to bid.
The highest bidder gets the chance to buy the product or service. This model is very advantageous to the entrepreneurs because enables them to sell their products and services at the highest price suggested by the buyers (Timmers 1998).
As much as Twitter is a suitable social site for the advertisement of products and services by entrepreneurs, it also has some limitations that make it difficult for the entrepreneurs to get the desired effect (Peay 1976). One of these challenges is the limited number of characters that entrepreneurs can type in their messages to clients or other entrepreneurs.
Twitter only allows users to use a maximum of one hundred and forty characters while writing messages. This limitation hinders entrepreneurs from communicating with their clients, prospective customers and other entrepreneurs in an effective manner.
As a result, the entrepreneurs may experience delays in response from the recipients of the messages due to difficulty in understanding the message (Mandel 1983). If a message is briefly written, there is a high probability of the recipient misunderstanding it.
From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that Twitter has played a big role in the spread of entrepreneurship and the facilitation of the activities of entrepreneurs. It has done this by easing communication between entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs or customers.
It has also provided a cheaper means for entrepreneurs to use for advertising their products and services. In addition to that, it is also clear from the foregoing discussion that entrepreneurs access their customers using a variety of business models, some of which have been discussed above.
Finally, Twitter has a number of disadvantages that pose a challenge to entrepreneurs using it as a means of communication and advertisement.
Reference List
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Leinhardt, S (1977) Social networks: A developing paradigm. New York, Academic Press.
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