Join Twitter to Quit Twitter
It seems like everywhere you look someone is talking about Twitter. In case you don’t know what Twitter is, Wikipedia defines it as a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other user’s updates (known as tweets). Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Click here for more on Twitter.
Twitter has seen a substantial amount of growth and is currently the third most popular social networking service behind both MySpace and Facebook. Recently Twitter received a lot of celebrity attention as both Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern joined the service. Two different media juggernauts with substantial audiences, decided to join Twitter because of the attention the service was receiving. The simple fact that Oprah joined caused a phenomenon as she quickly became the fastest person to have 1 million followers, but here is the kicker, a number of people don’t understand the point of Twitter. Stern admitted on his show that he got quickly tired of using the service and turned over the updating responsibility of Tweeting to his show’s producer. And does anyone really believe Oprah is the one Tweeting? Last time I checked Oprah was getting $40 million from XM satellite radio to put her name on a channel she has barely ever appeared on, so I don’t see her taking the time to tweet for free.
The biggest problem with Twitter is that people quickly become bored with the service. According to a report by Nielsen Media over 60% of Twitter users quit within their first month of signing up for the service. That is an extremely low retention rate and something that should concern the venture capital funded Twitter owners. Before the Oprah factor, the retention rate of Twitter was around 30% so there is some hope out there for Twitter but there are not too many people, if any, that can have the social impact that Oprah can.
So, maybe it is not fair to pick on Twitter by itself, so let’s compare it to other social networking services. Well consider this; according to Nielsen, when Facebook and MySpace were emerging networks, there retention rates were twice that of Twitter and when they were going though their explosive growth phase, like Twitter currently is, their retention rates were over 70%. Consumers are not getting tired of social networking but more than 60% of the people who join Twitter are getting tired of their service.
Personally, I am not a fan of Twitter. I don’t understand why people want to know that Aston Kutcher is playing scrabble with Bruce Willis as they discuss their views on life. I don’t care if Shaq is giving away donuts at Dunkin. Once, just once, I heard a good Twitter story. Paul Piece, forward for the Celtics, sent out a Twitter message saying the first five fans to the player’s entrance would receive five free tickets to the Celtics game. A number of individuals showed up and Pierce got as many in as he could while signing some autographs. I would say that when most people tell me a good story about Twitter, or what they consider to be a good story, 98% of the time it has to do with a celebrity. I don’t know about you but I think our society gives celebrities too many avenues to speak their opinion and Twitter is just one more medium adding to the clutter of our world that I don’t have time to pay attention to.
Tags: Quitters, Social Marketing, Social Network, twitter
