Twitter SWOT and PESTLE Analysis

Strength

1. Happening service with real time information: Twitter has emerged as a major social networking platform. It has become a popular forum where people share about all the latest events like breaking news, sports, entertainment, politics and daily interests. A unique point about Twitter is that it showcases all sides of a story and users have the chance to join in an open conversation and watch highlights, clips, or live-streaming events. This stellar social networking service supports more than 40 languages which makes Twitter accessible to people globally. The platform can be accessed by opening the domain twitter.com on almost all mobile devices through its apps Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android and even through SMS. There is a new paradigm shift in the consumer consumption patterns where consumer is in control of everything. Twitter streams live videos, news, opinions that are interactive and also provides information on real time basis. Hashtags are used to connect people interested in the same or similar topic within a loop. It helps people to find, follow and spread content. Many hashtags are used to spread awareness about various campaigns globally. According to a recent poll by top readers, 50% of users view Twitter as a news feed and Twitter serves multiple functions for its varied user base.

2. Powerful and popular marketing tool: Twitter has become important for business communication globally. Twitter is strongly used by businesses to spread awareness about their brands, products and promotional offers reaching their targeted audience instantaneously. Reviews about products and services are spread by consumers over the platform. It is a twin benefit tool to both businesses and consumers alike. Twitter content is not limited only to members who have created an account but can also be read by people worldwide. This is because the Twitter is a public platform. The Tweets made on the platform get rapidly distributed via over 1 million media outlets and through its many platform partners who often make the Tweets more timely, relevant and comprehensive by adding complementary and explanatory content to them. Twitter is additionally also used by the majority of important media outlets and publishers who use it as a platform for content distribution. Advertisers can also make use of the platform to launch products and services through the Promoted Products feature. Brand promotion, building connect with customers, expanding audience and creating conversations centered around advertising campaigns is also possible here which helps advertisers increase the visibility and reach of their products.

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Weakness

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Opportunity

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Threat

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Political

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Economic

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Social

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Technological

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Legal

1. Legal risks from defamations, impersonation or malicious tweets: Twitter often faces free speech dilemma. One major area that raises policy and legal issues for twitter is cyber stalking. There are various issues of defamation, impersonation and privacy concerns. In 2010, Twitter settled charges from the FTC alleging that Twitter deceived customers and did not protect their private information. Fake news is another issue plaguing social media platforms such as Twitter. Countries such as Brazil and Malaysia, before the 2018 elections, were badly affected by fierce internet disinformation battles. Warnings about fake news have also been given in Indonesia and the EU, which are due to hold polls in some time. Twitter on its part is employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to detect spam and has closed down thousands of accounts across the world for spreading fake news as well as pro-government propaganda.

2. Privacy and government regulations globally: There are a slew of legal forces that affect Twitter, namely privacy and government regulations. These legal forces are not only changing, but are often still under tests by courts. Therefore there is a tendency for them to be different from one country to another as far as interpretation and application is considered. Twitter’s current policies and practices are thus severely affected and can even result in its business being harmed. An example is the GDPR which has been brought into effect in the EU from May 2018. This has led to Twitter having to implement more stringent operational processes with regards to the processing of personal information as infractions can cost the company as much as €20 million or 4% of total worldwide revenue, whichever is higher, in fines. It is also closely working with governments and regulatory authorities and adjusts its business policies as per the prevailing regulations.

Environmental

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