Understanding Brands on Twitter

Abstract

IN THEIR INFANCY, SOCIAL NETWORKS WERE built around the value that exists in person-to-person communication. Depending on the channel, you saw content from friends, industry influencers, and celebrities that you chose to listen to and wanted to engage with. Social channels offered the opportunity to build new networks, stay informed, and discover new content like nothing before. Social networks changed the way you spoke to your friends and colleagues, and created an entirely new set of social rules for each new medium. The expectations for how your network was supposed to use Instagram were different from Pinterest and different from SnapChat. Users figured out the norms on each channel and expected others to do the same. People became acutely aware of what worked best, and learned the hard way (via unfriending and unfollowing) when they were stepping over the line.