This document discusses the organizational structures of Twitter and Facebook. It explains that both companies use a functional structure with specialized departments. Twitter and Facebook organize employees into departments based on skills and responsibilities like IT, marketing, and content. This structure allows each part of the business to operate efficiently. The document also notes that a strong organizational structure has helped Twitter and Facebook grow while competitors like MySpace declined.

1. Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PAPER 1
Organizational Structure Paper
Christi Oleski
MGT 230
July 1, 2013
Jo Hogg

2. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PAPER 2
Organizational Structure Paper
While social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have a strong organizational
structure that is appropriate for their particular product; social media. These sites may seem
simple that do not require structure to operate. Twitter to the general public may appear as
though it is nothing more than chatting through posts. Most tweets are text-based quotes of up to
140 characters and are posted on the user’s profile page (Shetty, 2010). Millions of people
worldwide use Twitter and Facebook and organizations use them to advertise and promote their
services. Twitter allows users to follow other users by receiving their tweets. Facebook has a
similar set up where the user has friends who see the user’s posts. Twitter launched in 2006 and
Facebook in 2004. Both are now the most popular social networking sites. A strong
organizational structure has allowed Twitter and Facebook to grow and remain strong in a
competitive market place where the product is your personal life on display.
Twitter and Facebook have developed their organizational structure to become one of the
most used social-networking sites in the world today. This spot was previously held by
MySpace. MySpace was used mainly by individuals to chat with each other and post pictures and
other personal information. Businesses never really adapted to MySpace like they have with
Twitter and Facebook. For this reason advertising companies have found it more worthwhile to
advertise through Twitter and Facebook. First Facebook, then Twitter realized that to stay in
business and be profitable it would require high traffic on the sites and many top advertisers.
Once businesses were able to take advantage of this new web tool they quickly learned how
helpful it was. Users can friend or follow organizations they are interested in. The organizations
can now use this platform to promote a product, service, or even cause. Twitter is slightly
different from Facebook in the way that the main purpose of the site is to tweet and follow others

3. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PAPER 3
tweets. It is simple, easy to use, and effective. Twitter has a different business appeal because
unlike Facebook there are no games or other things to do while you are logged in. Facebook has
developed that area of their business and has many different games and applications to entertain
a person while online. While logged into Facebook a user can also do everything from change
their status, check on a friend’s status, or post pictures. Facebook and Twitter both are popular
social networking sites and have developed a business structure that supports their organization.
Twitter and Facebook have many organizational functions that support the different
responsibilities within the organizations. While Facebook is set up for enormous amounts of
marketing through the use of advertising, Twitter allows individual organizations to posts tweets
to keep followers interested. Through the use of games Facebook also makes money by asking
users to pay for different parts of the games. Anyone who has played Farmville will attest that
these games can be addicting. Since Facebook has many different ways to make money and
maintain financial stability, they are able to constantly try different things. Twitter also makes its
money through advertising, just not in the same way Facebook does. Twitter promotes products
using promoted tweets. Organizations pay Twitter to promote their products in searchable tweets.
Tweets are searchable even through sites like Google and Bing. While it is less obvious on
Twitter, they like Facebook make most of their money promoting other businesses. The more
human traffic on a site the more desirable it is for other organizations to advertise with this site.
Since both Facebook and Twitter have very high daily traffic organizations gladly pay to
advertise with them.
Both Facebook and Twitter use a horizontal structure and functional organization. They
are set up in a way that each employee on the organization chart has a particular set of skills and
responsibilities. These skills and responsibilities are unique to a particular task; they are

4. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PAPER 4
specialized. A functional organization have specialized departments and are grouped according
to business functions or particular skills each function require (Bateman & Snell, 2011).
Facebook and Twitter are strong organizations and should remain this way for at least the near
future. Well-known companies and organizations throughout the world will continue to use them
to promote ideas, products, or anything else they want to make known. The employees at
Facebook and Twitter have individualized departments with individualized tasks. There is an
easy to follow flow chart between each operation. This allows for less confusion and clear
channels of authority. Without this failure is inevitable. While one department is responsible for
monitoring the IT (information technology), another department is responsible for web content.
The same is true for marketing, human recourses, and every other area of business. Each
department is specialized and functions efficiently this way. Without proper structure
instructions can get confused and responsibilities get uncertain. This creates chaos and in the end
will cause the websites to fail.
For a business to be successful it must have an effective organizational structure. A basic
organization structure gives a business direction and allows it to function. One of the first steps
to starting a business is to create a basic organizational structure and have it clearly show
departments, their functions, and who will run them (Shetty, 2010). A functional organization is
the proper structure for both Facebook and Twitter because of the type of business they are. If
responsibilities and departments were not clearly defined or organized differently it may cause
them to be less functional and less effective at social-networking. Social-networking sites are
here to stay and both Facebook and Twitter are leading the charge. They have learned from their
predecessor, MySpace what it takes to create high human traffic and attract advertisers. By
creating an effective organizational structure they are successful and have few internal issues.

5. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PAPER 5
Reference
Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading & collaborating in a
competitive world (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Shetty, N. (2010). ManagementParadise.com. Retrieved from
http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/human-resources-management-h-r/215152-
organisational-structure-twitter.html

6. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PAPER 5
Reference
Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading & collaborating in a
competitive world (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Shetty, N. (2010). ManagementParadise.com. Retrieved from
http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/human-resources-management-h-r/215152-
organisational-structure-twitter.html