The Use of Social Tags - Essay Example

THE USE OF SOCIAL TAGS TO ADDRESS A GIVEN GROUP OF AUDIENCE Twitter is a social media service that provides a platform for the users to post various messages commonly known as tweets. The tweets posted can be of any nature. A tag is described as a phrase that represents a specified set of information in accordance to a given criteria. The use of tags facilities quick location of information related to a particular subject area or a given task. It also enhances information sharing between people from different parts of the world (Lacy, 2010). In the social media, tagging enables the classification of information by users in such a way that the information can be easily be accessed when needed. It will enable a quick filtering of the required information among the available information. Social tagging also plays a major role in connecting the users who have similar interests. The users can be able to share among themselves relevant piece of information regarding their area of interest (OReilly, & Milstein, 2009). Introduction Different tweets are usually posted to address different types of audiences. The different types of audiences have a common characteristic in that they are all imaginary in the mind of the writer. The three main types of audiences to which tweets can be addressed include (Clark 2012); the writer’s audience, the networked audience, and the broadcast audience. The writer’s audience: In this type of audience, the user tries to imagine the potential audience that have a high likelihood of gaining interest in the intended tweet and composes the tweet that is tailored for the perceived audience. The user tries to form a picture of the audience in his/her mind in order to compose a tweet that will meet the needs of that specified group of audience. The user usually expects responses from the audience. The broadcast audience: In type of audience, the user does not have a specific group of audiences in mind. The user just composes a tweet that is intended for any audience. For this situation, the user does not expect to get any response regarding the tweet. They compose a tweet that is meant for the consumption of the general public, and response for them is not a priority. The networked audience: This type of audience combines the characteristics of both the writer and the broadcast audience. Unlike in the broadcast audience, the user here composes a tweet that is intended of a large group of audience, but he/she has an idea of the type of audience to which the tweet is intended for. Just like in the writer’s audience, the user here also expects to get responses from the audience regarding the tweet. According to the sample tweets that have been provided, the form of audience that is most likely to be enable is the broadcast audience. This is so because each user is tweeting and re tweeting information that is either intended for a specific person or on one in particular. The users are posting tweets describes their feeling or an action that is either related to a specific person or themselves (Comm 2009). This shows that the users are not tweeting their posts to get responses, rather, they are posting the tweets to pass a message to the general public or a specific person. The social and communicative properties of this kind of audience include: Ego retweets This is when a user retweets a post that is makes reference to them. Some users view this property as being self-centered, whereas others observe it as a means of appreciating another person who has done something that is worth giving credit. Ego retweeting is a techniques that is adopted to appreciate the attention of someone publicly, particularly when the original writer is acknowledged more as compared to the referenced person. Ego retweeting is used in this case to give credit to the person being referenced for the attention they contributed. It helps to appreciate those people who are not acknowledged, yet they deserve (Morris, 2010). Ego retweeting is also used in the field of marketing. It is used in the instance where the consumers talk about the interesting or positive factors regarding their brand. In most cases, their twitter handle is usually flooded with praises about their products. This enables the particular company to gain popularity and have an increase in the number of customers (Fitton, Gruen, & Poston, 2009). It will also enable the company to gain an advantage when compared to the companies that are producing similar products. From the provide context, the following is an example of ego retweeting; @mariamcerlane: Big up to @TriciaWoolston for her unstinting support of my friend. Such beautiful make up. You da best! #courtface The retweet thread When a given topic attracts a group of users’ attention, they will not only give their views, but will e trying as well share it with the other peoples. The process of sharing the topic severally, through the act of retweeting can lead to a diversion in the main topic. Other subject area can be introduced during the conversation. The users will continue using the hash tag of the topic and post a comment that is not related to the subject area. Sometimes, the users can use the hash tag of the topic to relate a given attribute of the topic to what they are posting. The users use this relationship to make the other people who might view the tweet understand it better. A retweeted comment usually has the phrase “RT” proceeding the comment. This will make the other users know that the comment is not an original one, but it has been shared by the user. In the given sample, the whole conversation is an example of a retweet thread. The users are either talking of the subject area in focus, or using the hash tags related to the topic in order to make a comparison between an aspect in the topic, and the subject matter being addressed through their post. RT @AttitudeMag: Current mood #courtface #wemeanbusiness http://t.co/Jo6VPQ4fMp. In this retweeted example, we can deduce that the user is trying to compare his/her current mood to that of the court room. This implies that the user is addressing a given activity with seriousness. Commentary diversity of retweets The general organization of all the conversations vary across the different groups of users. When a conversation is tailored for a particular group of users, then the tweet will limit other groups of people from engaging in the conversation. The conversation might also be limited to that specific subject area. However when a conversation is not restricted to a particular group of users, then the it will invite the commentary of everyone, and the users will also have the freedom of posting tweets that are not directly related to the subject area. This will make the conversation more interesting, as opposed to having conversations related to that particular subject. It brings about monotony, hence boredom and this type of conversation might not be long as the ones that are intended for everyone (McFedries, 2009). In the sample given, it is so evident that the subject area was not posted with an intention of addressing a specific group of users. The tweet was meant for everyone. From the conversation, we can see that other users are tweeting and retweeting tweets that are related to the subject in focus, but others are using the hash tag of the topic to address a different issue. This shows that there is diversity in the commentary, hence making the conversation interesting to the users. @michaelhogan Get the #courtface look. MT @DawnHFoster: Good news! The worst example of journalism imaginable. http://t.co/MwKymyz8Ld. In this example, the user is using the hash tag #courtface to portray to the other users that he is addressing the issue of journalism with seriousness. He is comparing the seriousness that is usually experienced in the court room to the seriousness in which he is addressing his tweet. "You know as well as I do that regular cocaine users don’t look like this.""(Nigellao) #TeamNigella http://t.co/9oSQMqqCwE http://t.co/HSZxqt79rX. Following this example, the user has tweeted a phrase that were mentioned in the court room by Nigella Lawson. This particular user was following the proceedings of the court and this particular phrase raised an interest in that user. That is why he/she has chosen to tweet it and possibly get commentary on the view f the other users about that particular phrase. Given the examples, we can see that the two different users have participated in the conversation each with a different commentary toward the subject at hand. The first use has used the hash tag to address a different issue, while the second user has posted a tweet in line with the ongoing topic of the conversation. This show diversity of comments in the conversation. The effect of the broken telephone During the retweeting of a given comment severally, the accuracy of the original information may be lost. This is because the users will edit the tweet and eventually the original message might be lost (Abou 2009). This may result to misleading other users who have not viewed the original tweet. In the sample given, this particular tweet can mislead the users who might view it; "You know as well as I do that regular cocaine users don’t look like this."" (Nigella) #TeamNigella http://t.co/9oSQMqqCwE http://t.co/HSZxqt79rX. Some users might get the impression that the user who posted that tweet is talking about himself/herself, which is not the case. The user is just posting what was mentioned in the court room. Not all the users will be aware of this fact. Some will believe that the tweet is meant to address the user. Conclusion Just like any other social media service, twitter gives the users a platform to connect and share their views on different subject matters. The platform uses hash tags to address a given matter. A user can compose a tweet for different groups of users. The user can choose to address a either a writer’s audience, broadcast audience or the network audience. All the groups of audiences has different characteristics. However, there is one aspect of that is common to the three groups, and that is the fact that they are imaginary in the mind of the user (Seargeant, & Ngampramuan, 2012). Before composing a tweet, the user tries to create in his/her mind the image of the potential audience. Twitter allows everyone to post a tweet of any nature. A given tweet can be interesting to the extent that it captures the attention of other users. The users can then share that particular tweet with the other users through retweeting it. A retweet is always preceeded by the “RT” phrase. In most cases, tweets that have been retweeted have a high tendency of losing its original meaning given the fact that during the retweet, users usually edit the original tweet (McFedries, 2009). This may lead to the misleading other users who view the edited tweet. Social tags have many social and communicative properties. Some include; ego retweeting, diversity in the commentary provide by the users, the effect of the broken telephone, among others. These properties feature in any group of audience (McFedries, 2009). Understanding the group of audience to which a given tweet will be intended for is important for the user. The understanding will enable the user to create a tweet that is relevant (Abou 2009). A clear image of the audience will also enable the user to get responses that are in line with the subject matter in focus. Work Cited Abou, O. (2009). Twitter. Paris: Micro application. Clark, D. (2012). Twitter. Brisbane: Emereo Publishing. Comm, J. (2009). Twitter power: How to dominate your market one tweet at a time. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Fitton, L., Gruen, M. E., & Poston, L. (2009). Twitter for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub. Lacy, K. (2010). Twitter marketing for dummies. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. McFedries, P. (2009). Twitter: Tips, tricks, and tweets. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Morris, T. (2010). All a twitter: A personal and professional guide to social networking with Twitter. Indianapolis, Ind: Que. Murthy, D. (2013). Twitter: Social communication in the Twitter age. 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