Basis in Symbolic Convergence Theory Some researchers within the field of communication have found that Twitter holds a basis in the Symbolic Convergence Theory, which is based on a belief that meanings, emotions, values and the motives for action are found in the realm of people trying to make sense out of a common experience. First proposed by Ernest Bormann in the early 1970s, the theory offers an explanation for the appearance of a group consciousness, consisting of shared emotions, motives and meanings (Bormann, 1996, p
S. Army utilizes its Twitter to recruit soldiers (Case and King, 2011, p
For instance, Twitter has become a utilized tool in many American classrooms in order for teachers to better bridge the gap between teaching current events in the classroom and asserting that students fully understand the importance of what they are being taught. In connecting current-events to social media sites like Twitter, teachers have viewed a higher level and capacity for long-term memory in students who not only have the ability to learn something within the context of the classroom, but expand upon it within the context of Twitter (Cluskey, Elbeck, Hill and Strupeck, 2011, p
The tipping point for Twitter into the realm of cultural and communication phenomena is largely cited as the March of 2007 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000 tweets per day, all due to marketing strategies set in place within the festival boundaries by Twitter executives (Douglas, 2007, p
Symbolic Convergence is based on the belief that all people who are working together to reach a common goal almost always exchange fantasies proposed by group members in an effort to create social cohesion within the group. In the context of Twitter, fantasy and social cohesion can be expressed in user's inclusion of stories or jokes that contain or reveal emotion rather than pertaining to what is actually going on within the group at that given time (Griffin, 1997, p
97). In the same vein, JetBlue uses Twitter as part of its corporate communications function, while companies such as K-Mart, Sears and Dell use Twitter to answer customer service questions (Kulviwat and Sledgianowski, 2009, p
1). Newsweek's Steven Levy noted, "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways of the festival, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," which attracted the attention of nearly every concert-goer (Levy, 2007, p
This is the exact notion that Bormann created when his theory was founded. Bormann posited that significant symbols are shared by group members and referred to these symbols as fantasies, not as a judgment upon their existence but as a recognition of the power they hold within a group (Rozell, 2009, p
" Created in 2006 by software architect, Jack Dorsey, Twitter rapidly gained global popularity, attaining over 200 million users by 2011, generating over 200 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day (Sagolla, 2009, p
These are also fans of the sport in general, as their second-favorite sport is NFL football. It should be noted that different sources report different things about the college football demo -- one source has it 40% 55+ in age, and 80%+ white (Thompson, 2014)
Companies with expertise in advanced analytics are partnering with Twitter to capitalize on the massive data streams generated by the application, including Radian6 a division of Salesforce.com and Attensity among others (Barnes, Bohringer, 2011)
The economics of SaaS applications however are the most compelling factors that are leading small and medium businesses to adopt them in en masse for every major strategy, from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to customer service. For the restaurant looking to automate their Purchasing and Support Services, SaaS-based applications free them up from having to purchase on-premise software to using only the modules they need online (Bentley, 2008)
They are exceptionally easier to deploy and maintain over time, while also having a continual stream of new developments that add value. In short, SaaS-based Purchasing, Supply Chain and Sourcing SaaS-based applications will over time be much more flexible and capable of staying in step with the changing needs of the restaurant compared to their more expensive and cumbersome on-premise counterparts (Corbett, 2009)
This continues to be a catalyst of future revenue growth for the company as well. Future additions to the Twitter business model include creating a reputation management and influencer series of applications comparable to Klout and applied to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and applications (Kolsky, 2012)
' What's new with what Tweeter is doing to create revenue and can it be a method of revenue creation your group's eCommerce company could use? Common to many social networking sites, Twitter initially struggled to define what its business model would be over the long-term. Having to triangulate between privacy, security, personal preferences on the one hand and the need for continually providing an open architecture for developers while ensuring an excellent user experience challenged Twitter's senior management initially (Laudon, Traver, 2011)
com and Attensity among others (Barnes, Bohringer, 2011). The future profitability of Twitter is entirely predicated on how well they choose to manage their nascent analytics, BI and Big Data expertise, specifically in the area of ad targeting and sentiment analysis throughout specific markets (Morrissey, 2010)
All of these factors make the SaaS model of using Purchasing and Support Services more attractive to the restaurant. One of the greatest advantages in addition to these economic ones is the flexibility and agility in customizing the applications to the specific needs of the purchasing, supply chain and sourcing needs of the business (Sanborn, 2008)
Due to the fact that Internet sites, such as America Online or Facebook, encourage groups of users to connect with other groups, people are able to engage in group forming activities that are similar with face-to-face groups. To illustrate this tendency, a 2006 study revealed that 43% of the Internet-using subjects who are part of online communities feel as strongly about them as they do about their real-life equivalents (Giffords, 2009)
In this sense, Lucy Harper envisioned four practical ways to improve school communication using social media (2013). Firstly, setting up a Facebook classroom page for the purpose of posting updates, amusing stories and homework assignments online would increase the sense of community, together with minimizing student and parental homework-related discomfort (Harper, 2013)
So far, these virtual mediums are efficiently enabling patients' interconnection which serves to better manage their individual courses of treatment, as well as physicians' availability to communicate with each other and so advance the practice of medicine. Although their current uses are more or less restricted, "industry observers envision a future where social networks are an integral part of the health care landscape"(Heckley, 2010)