Let's talk about tweeting

      Pop quiz: which social media platform gives you 280 characters to talk to your favorite celebs, friends and market your products? Twitter! From hashtags to trendy topics, Twitter is a very useful tool in both our personal and professional lives. Social media has given small business and giant corporations a chance to get real up-close and personal with their customers. Twitter has also given businesses the opportunity to analyze impressions, retweets, likes and reactions from their customers. This is especially useful when handling difficult situations such as a controversial ad.

     

     Recently, Dove tweeted an ad that contained a GIF which showed a black woman turning into a white woman. The controversial ad was circulated around Twitter and many expressed their anger with the company directly. Dove eventually ended up pulling the ad and replacing it with something more appropriate. Twitter gives businesses the opportunity to interact with their customers quickly and address concerns. In the case of the Dove ad, Twitter was useful because it allowed Dove to get a handle on the situation. Twitter can also be useful as a political, organizational and journalistic tool.

      

      We currently live in a time of fake news, businessmen posing as politicians and organizations promoting their agendas. Twitter allows journalists to see what their competition is doing as well as see what’s trending in the world. On a slower news day, Twitter can be especially useful to journalists because the platform can provide content that people want to hear about. For example, after Tristan Thompson was reported to have cheated on Khloe Kardashian, journalist dove right into the world of Twitter and other social media platforms to try to report the latest on the situation. Anything concerning a Kardashian is golden news so journalists have the ability to search through Twitter for answers.

      On the political side, Twitter has gained some real attention with the current bigot president in office. Various media outlets quote more of Trump’s tweets than they do his speeches. That alone just goes to show how much Trump replies on the platform to get his opinion out. After we all learned to “grab em by the p&@!y”, we noticed a spike in feminist organizations present on Twitter. Twitter is useful to movements such as the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, etc. because the platform allows these organizations to spread more awareness on ongoing issues.

      Three events in the past few months that Twitter has covered is Beychella (Beyonce’s performance at Coachella), Kylie and Khloe’s pregnancies and the release of Cardi B’s debut album. During Beyonce’s performance at this year’s Coachella festival, Twitter went absolutely crazy! The world went so crazy over Beychella that all of the trending slots on Twitter were filled with #BeyHive #Beychella and so on. For months, the media speculated about Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner both being pregnant. In this case, Twitter also went crazy trending under several hashtags as well as spreading crazy conspiracy theories. After the two sisters pregnancies were confirmed, Twitter was filled with memes, gender guesses, etc. The release of Cardi B’s debut album was also a hot topic on Twitter. Fans tweeted Cardi B daily to figure out the date of her album’s release. Through Twitter, Cardi B was able to inform her fans about the status of her album.

      For this project, I choose to follow Kim Kardashian, Cosmopolitan and Tomi Lahren. I absolutely love Kim Kardashian and Cosmo magazine, but on the other hand, I absolutely despise Tomi Lahren. I followed Kim Kardashian because I love her style, personality and beauty products. By following her on Twitter, I was able to get the latest scoop on her new makeup line KKWxMario. Kim sent makeup lovers into a frenzy after she announced the launch of her collaboration with makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic aka Makeup by Mario. Anytime one of the Kardashian sisters launch a new beauty product, it’s bound to sell out. Following Kim gave myself and other fans the ability to see her use her products. It’s one thing to go into a store and buy a makeup product, but another thing to see makeup tutorials using the makeup products. I believe Kim’s marketing on Twitter allowed her products become known to customers and sell out.

      I followed Cosmo for the makeup tutorials they share with readers, the latest trends and what’s going on with female artists. Cosmo shares several tips and videos from their favorite makeup artists. By doing this, Cosmo is not only marketing for the makeup artist, but they are marketing for themselves. We live in a time that we “slay” and makeup is becoming a huge industry. After Rihanna released her Fenty beauty line, Cosmo wrote several articles about the products and fans went NUTS!! Rihanna developed shades for all skin types which made her competitors get down or lay down. Cosmo is also good for giving DIY tutorials for clothing and beauty products. I love makeup, trendy fashion and news on females in all industries. I know I can get information on all these topics from Cosmo, so it was a no brainer to follow them.

      Unfortunately, I had to pick a topic/person I didn’t like so I chose Tomi Lahren. The first time I heard of her was after Beyonce’s Formation performance. I’ve been a BeyHive member for as long as I can remember, so when she decided to come for Beyonce and the Black Panther party, I knew right away she wasn’t the type of person I’d like. Her conservative views are completely ridiculous and people like her should not have the ability to ever get on Twitter and spread bullshit.

      The use of this Twitter project was difficult at times. The fact that we were tweeting as ourselves and we had to tweet in the third person was a challenge. When I use Twitter, I use it to communicate with my friends, so not being able to use conversational language was a definite struggle. The project made me think more and allowed me to inform without putting myself in the conversation.