Businessmodel of Twitter
Customer Segments
Twitter has a segmented market business model, with customer segments that have slightly different needs. The company targets its offering at individuals who want to communicate with each other/the public and businesses that want to promote their brands.
Value Proposition
Twitter offers six primary value propositions: customization, convenience, pricing, performance, risk reduction, and brand/status.
The company enables customization by allowing users to personalize their profile pages. It also enables businesses to tailor their marketing efforts by identifying and targeting individuals based on age, gender, geography, interests, devices used, and keywords in their tweets.
The company offers convenience by providing users with a source of real-time information. It is often used by news organizations to give breaking news and updates. The platform also makes operations simpler for businesses by enabling them to easily monitor the progress of their marketing campaigns. It gives them access to the Tweet Activity Dashboard, Campaign Dashboard, and Account Analytics, all of which provide data such as most popular tweets, providing a useful gauge of performance.
The company offers a pricing value proposition. Usage of the platform is free. Also, businesses that use its advertising services only have to pay when individuals follow their accounts or retweet, reply, like, or click on the firms’ Promoted Tweets. There is no minimum spending amount for the services.
The company has demonstrated strong performance through tangible results. One study claims that the interactivity it offers drives an emotional response that is 75% higher than that experienced on most websites. Also, the company itself indicates that ads on its platform generate 2 to 2.4x the average sales and penetration lifts of those on comparable social sites. High-profile examples of positive outcomes for specific advertisers on the site include the following:
- Software firm MuleSoft used Twitter’s ad solutions to make it stand out at an industry conference, resulting in a 5.18% average tweet engagement rate and over 4,000 leads
- Toho-Towa, a movie distributor, used Twitter’s Promoted Video option to build buzz for a film sequel, resulting in 54,000 retweets and a 70% increase in box office over the previous film
- Huawei Mobile used Twitter’s Promoted Tweet option to generate chatter over an announcement for its new phone, resulting in an engagement rate 193% higher than expected
- Coca-Cola Mexico used Twitter’s ad solutions to increase brand recognition and promote a sponsorship, resulting in over 10,000 new followers and 4,818 mentions
-
Jaguar USA used Twitter’s First View option to drive awareness of its new model, resulting in 4.5 million views in one day and a 12% increase in brand favorability The company reduces risk by maintaining high safety and security standards. It allows users to do the following:
- Receive warnings in advance of tweets that may contain media with sensitive content
- Flag one’s own tweets if they contain sensitive content so others will be warned
- Identify undesirable tweets from brands so Twitter can limit tweets of that nature in the future
- Protect one’s tweets (limit which followers can see them on one’s profile)
- Mute received tweets considered undesirable (prevent them from appearing on one’s profile without blocking/unfollowing the tweeter; tweeters are not aware they have been muted)
- Block undesirable followers (prevent followers from being able to interact with one’s account; they will not be able to tweet on the account or see the account’s tweets)
- Unfollow undesirable followers so that one does not see their tweets in one’s profile
- Report followers that are believed to be in violation of Twitter’s rules/Terms of Service The company has established a powerful brand due to its success. It has 35 offices around the world, is available in over 40 languages, and has over 313 million monthly active users. It is used by most *Fortune *500 companies and several prominent individuals, ranging from entertainers to politicians.
Channels
Twitter’s main channel for individuals is its website. It maintains a direct sales team for reaching out to potential advertisers. The company promotes its offering through its social media pages, online marketing, and participation in conferences.
Customer Relationships
Twitter’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature.
Customers utilize the service through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees. The company’s website features an “Insights” section that includes articles and research reports, and the site provides answers to frequently asked questions.
That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of e-mail and social media support.
Key Activities
Twitter’s business model entails maintaining a robust platform for its users.
Key Partners
Twitter maintains the Twitter Official Partner Program, whose members include firms that provide high-quality products and services that assist advertisers on its platform.
They demonstrate expertise in one or more of the following areas: Analytics, Engagement & Publishing, Content Curation & Display, Consulting & Agency Services, Ad Technology, Audience Data, Audience Onboarding, and Ad Measurement.
They can help brands do everything from scale customer care to increase campaign return on investment. Specific partners include the following:
· 4C