- Image via CrunchBase
Is Twitter Dying?
According to Barracuda networks an internet research company via Readwriteweb, Twitter looks to be an app that the majority of users pick up for a second, play with for a minute, get a puzzled look on their face then never touch again.
Yet, other numbers show that the number of Tweets per day is higher than ever.
So how can a resource that’s losing momentum and growth gain in use?
Is Twitter doomed? Or can it be saved? What can Twitter do to bring back the users it’s lost?
First off – I absolutely love twitter. As a tool to reach out to people in my niche. The people I friend they really get and understand Twitter. Then again they’re social media consultants and experts so they had better grasp the basic fundamentals, or find a new line of work.
But what does twitter do about the person who joins, and never tweets their first tweet?
Think that this is only a few people? Guess again – according to a report from Hubspot 55.5 percent of twitter users don’t follow anyone, and 54.9 percent have never tweeted.
Last time I checked anything over 50% is a majority.
Here’s some more startling numbers on the usage of Twitter from Hubspot via ArsTechnica:
- 79.79% of users provided no homepage URL.
- 75.86% of users have not entered a bio.
- 68.68% have not specified their location.
- 55.50% are not following anyone.
- 54.88% Have never tweeted.
- 52.71% have no followers.
What these numbers say is that as little as a quarter of Twitter’s members actually use the service on a regular basis.
In my opinion, when you have the sheer amount of hype and publicity as Twitter has had, and you lose 50-70% of your members before they even get two feet in the door, you’ve got a major problem.
How can Twitter Turn the Tide?
These are just some suggestions, but twitter needs to maybe instigate some sort of point / karma system. They could then have ‘points’ and some ‘quests’ which would really be a tutorial showing some of the things you can do with twitter.
The problem isn’t that people are stupid, and just don’t get it. It’s not that twitter is dumb, and not worth anything. There’s no reason for everybody not to get something out of twitter.
The problem is people’s attention spans are short, and they don’t have the time to figure out what the fuss is all about. They try it out, don’t get it or understand it, and they leave. Probably never come back.
Heck, I was almost one of these people. I joined twitter, and had an account a few months before I really became involved in the service, and I was a blogger, blogging about social media and blogging.
I’ve played online games where the learning curve is pretty steep, there’s a lot going on. These games always start you out with ‘quests’. Little things that you do that teaach you the basic concepts of the game, till you’re ready to branch out on your own. Without these quests it would be almost impossible to get very far in the game. Most people would quit before they got very far.
That’s where Twitter has failed. To retain their new members they need to have a tutorial as part of their signup. They could even have some kind of incentive for people who finish the tutorial, filling out all their profile information, follow at least 10 people, and send at least 10 tweets. They could team up with an online game like Zynga’s farmville for instance and offer free in game rewards for those who complete the twitter quest.
Twitter has to do something. It has to retain new customers, or it may never become a viable resource. Yet, the numbers do show that those who do get Twitter and use it regularly are keeping it afloat – but how long will that happen? What happens when facebook integrates all of twitters features and there’s no real use left for the microblogging service?
What do you think Twitter Could do to keep the customers it Already has, and to get new customers to keep using the service??
BTW & FYI you can follow me on twitter! @PatrickCurl
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Authors bio is coming up shortly.
I never got into twitter and there are so many services like it now, that it just gets overwhelming. Maybe twitter has lived out its popularity, just as friendster fell to myspace and myspace is falling to facebook.
I don't think twitter is dying. I DO think they need to rethink the way they introduce new customers and users. I do think though that it's a possibility that someday facebook may be the goto network for everything. It's already integrated a lot of twitter-like features. I still love twitter though and feel it can be a very viable tool, and perhaps it only makes sense to us social media types, and journalists and that's where the usage will stop.
Only time will tell, twitter's working on some new projects and maybe their new login service announced at SXSW will be a game changer, or their geo-location service. I believe the heart of twitter's future though revolves around getting one time users to keep using the service, enticing back users who've left because they didn't understand how to use it, and training new users on what all you can do with twitter.
As far as social networks go Twitter is a bit more technical and confusing than a site like facebook, you login you connect with old friends. There's a lot more but that's the basic. Twitter you post little events in your life, or your business's life, and hope that it matters to people. You also share news, and other things and you only have 140 characters. Even I created an account and went three months after my first signing up before taking a second look.