eeetuk:

The Benefits of twitter that People Don’t Talk About
By eeetuk


The Nigerian government ban on twitter is bad for economy, and not just freedom of speech. However, given the evidence of misused of twitter and other social media tools in Nigeria, I truly support the idea of licensing twitter and Facebook.

First, let me talk about the benefits of twitter.
Twitter helps to covey information from one person to another.
Second, twitter is the most effective forms of marketing (Bulearca & Bulearca, 2010).

And, what other things do people use twitter for?
My research shows that people tweet about interesting things they have found. For example, I read about a newly opened restaurant in my neighborhood from a friend tweet. The tweeted message said the restaurant has two chicken sandwiches for the price of one, a free drink of your choice and a nice place to celebrate birthday party. Days after the restaurant name went on the air, customers started pouring in from opening time till it closes. That translates into high revenues for the restaurant owner and provides more hiring opportunities for people seeking jobs.

Jacqueline Zone is a social media writer in Sprout blog. Her recent report suggests twitter sees 6,000 tweets every second. And for business, she argued “these conversations can prove to be a valuable source of customer insights”. And that means money too.

According to a University of Maryland study, Facebook and other social media sites have spawned the “App Economy” which has created between 182,000 and 235,000 jobs and has added between $12.19 billion and $15.71 billion in wages and salaries. A study funded by Facebook finds that in Europe, Facebook added a similar number of jobs (approximately 232,000, Daralus Irani, 2012)

Third, twitter allows you to share interested photographs about yourself, business with potentials benefits to your community and someone you know. You can also use twitter to share interesting news items you have found. And if you are a student, you can use twitter to share your research work with your teacher, classmates and get feedback on the progress of your work. This saves time and money.

Fourth, thousands of conferences are held yearly to promote empower ideas and solidify learning and professional growth. If you attend a conference, you can use twitter to share your thoughts with those who participated in the conference. You can also use twitter to ask questions and get feedback in a matter of minutes. You can use twitter to reply to other people tweets as well. Furthermore, you can use twitter to link any posts you have written.

Finally, is the Nigerian government ban on twitter a good idea?
To answer this question, lets first look at what most countries around the world use twitter for. According to economic and social research council blog (2021), twitter is used by most countries around the world to perform the following tasks:
 Details of new publications or resources you've produced
 News items that feature your research
 Links to any blog posts you've written
 Thoughts on conferences you attend
 Questions to invite feedback
 Interesting news items you’ve found
 Interesting photographs
 Replies to other people's tweets
 Retweets of other people's tweets
But in Nigeria, available evidence indicates the opposite. In 2021 alone, Nigeria has recorded high number of kidnapping and abduction of school children, farmers dead, killing of police and security personnel in the country. Those in support of government ban on twitter suggest twitter users are responsible. Evidence so far has confirmed misused of twitter is responsible for hundreds or thousands of deaths taken place in Nigeria. For example, since President Buhari issued ban on twitter use in Nigeria, killings and kidnapping have dropped down considerably. So, when it comes to security and safety of Nigerian citizens, I think Nigerian government ban on twitter is the right thing. And I also think licensing providers of social media technology is a good idea. It took many years to build Nigeria to be destroyed in one day.