| Communication | ‘ oer 1 Before you read : Do you tweet? Why? / Why not? Reading Read the article from the Financial Times by Jonathan Moules and do the exercises that follow. EE To tweet or not to tweet is a business question Jonathan Moules Is there a commercial use for social protested to Glasses Direct but had finding personnel, improving staff networking sites such as Twitterand used the phrase “glassesdirect” in productivity and finding new cus- Facebook? This is an important his tweet, which Caruthers tracked tomers, Vena Ramphal claims she question formany company owners, down though a search, found that would never have created her bus 5 Who have found themselves devot” 25 tweet, saw he was a director of pho- 4s ness venture, Divining Femininity, ing precious resources to Keeping tography, so probably needed some without Twitter ~ beeause it was fnline followers updated through _spees,andtried to figureout what We through chatting on the network that ‘Twitter tweets, while wondering if could do,” Carruthers says. Within she hooked up with her eo-foundes. theres ahottom-ine benefit totheir couple of hours, Glasses Direct had Heer suecess is all the more sur. 10 businesses. sw made a basic pair of replacement 79 prising since, as a relationship David Carruthers, userexperience frames and had them in the Twitter- coach, she had avoided social net- manager at Glasses Direct, the _er'shands he following day. Working sites, believing that they ‘online spectaces retailer, claims that But while such heroic tales of were inferior to face-to-face com using Twitter is one of the most customer service can only help with munication. “I have been very 1s enjoyable clement of his working 4s Glasses Direct's profile online, Car- 1s pleasantly surprised.” she says. Het ‘day a8 i puts him in direct contact ruthers admits that Twitter is not a new business will run weekend With customers. “I use it as an’ financially important area for the workshops for women to explore ‘engaging way of alking to custom- business. Alan Stevens, who advises different aspects of femininity. The fers," he says, “We're extremely company owners on social media founders marked the launch with a 2» proud of ourcustomer service here, = use through his business, Media s0 (weet, and were sueprsed to have tnd this is another way of making Coach, says: “Thave a lot of exam- more than 300 people view their sure customers ae happy. ples of people who are using Twitter posting in the frst few hours. Twitter is an excellent way to incredibly well and thousands more provide immediate feedback tocus- that are using it badly.” 2s tomers. aevording to Canuthers. He ss Even the founders of Twitter are cites @ recent example where he famous for failing to come up witha fame across someone using Twitter way to monetse thei ingenious and {complain about not being able © additive network, However, many get his glasses fixed before an companies use the technology t0 ‘ important business trip. He had not solve business challenges, such as ETRE ene eeneptemantmenn SPE SS ES 2 Pearson Education Limited 2011 puorocor1. Match words from each column to make expressions from lines 1-22. 1 social line benefit 2 botiom- spectacles manager 3 user networking retailer 4 online experience sites 2. Now match the expressions above to the people and things mentioned in the article that relate to them. 2). an increase in profit for businesses in general ) David Carruthers ©) Glasses Direct 4) Facebook or Twitter 3. Use appropriate forms of expressions from lines 1-42 to complete these statements. a a) you spend lt of time and money on something that you could use for something else, you toil, b) something allows you to communicate with people, it you ‘with them, ©) Something is an interesting method for doing something, itis an of doingit. ) you are very happy with your achievements, you are ofthem, ©) you reply straightaway to someone in relation to what they have told you, you them with. you find something after a lot of looking, YOU reall 8) you ind an answer about the correct thing to do ina particular situation, you ......0UL todo. 4 True or false? (lines 43-68) Twitter 42) is the direct cause of greatly increased profits at Glasses Direct. ) Is.used wisely by many people, but not al, ©) has made a lot of money for its founders. 4) 's used to solve four particular business challenges. ©) was used by Vena Ramphal to find partners for her new business. 1) allowed her to found her business but she could have dane itn ather ways as wel TEXT BANK +> UNITa 5 Find an expression (lines 68-82) that: 4) refers to making contact with people and doing things together: 10 someone, (3 words) ) refers to something that is not ust surprising, but especially so because of a particular reason, (words) ©) Is used to describe something that I less good than something else. (1 word) ) is used to describe communication between people who ae inthe same room, rather than over the Internet. (3 words) 2) eles toa traning course with active participants. (1 word) 1) refers to an occasion when something s seen or available to buy forthe first time. (1 word) ) means a message sent on Twitter. (1 word) Over to you 1 In what ways could Twitter be of use in your tine of business, ora busines that you ae intrested in? Over to you 2 Wil social networking eventually replace faceto-ace socialising completely? Why? / Why not?