Recent stats recently published by Compete and Quantcast have shown that for yet another month Twitter’s stats are flat lining. The social site which saw an impressive spike in traffic in the first half of 2008 has since never reached these heights. After having a bit of a think and reading around on what people think of the matter I thought I would jot down 8 reasons why I think Twitter is struggling to gain the same peak in popularity it did in that glorious July in 2009.
Has Twitter Run Out Of Steam?
1. Hype, Hype, and Hype
Like with any new product if everyone is talking about it there will always be enough curiosity and intrigue to prompt people into ‘seeing what all the fuss is about’ and this without question had an impact on Twitters spike. Also in the UK Twitter appeared to explode onto the scene when Stephen fry started tweeting and so it almost became a vehicle to follow celebrities before it properly announced itself as a social networking tool like Facebook. Once the hype has gone you pretty much have to rely on the product itself to push for and maintain users and unfortunately I think Twitter is almost found wanting in this area…which leads me on to the next point…
2. User Engagement
Compared to Facebook there is perhaps simply not enough to engage mainstream users. There was quite a good comment on the Mashable post from a user called chemobabe who mentioned the fact that Twitter is not as reciprocal and intuitive as Facebook and that it is hard to figure out how to get people to follow you and who to follow. I think this is a true reflection as I have often thought this. Not many of my friends are on it and the ones that are barely update their statuses and so there is no benefit in me following them.
3. Users
When it boils down to it I think Twitter appeals to a much smaller audience. A poll not too long ago identified the main audience for Twitter in the UK as young and liberal. Although of course this does not mean that all users fall into this category the findings do suggest that Twitter lacks the large demographic appeal that Facebook possesses.
Also following on from the Stephen Fry point the fact that Twitter has almost typecast itself as a place to follow celebrities means that it is difficult to maintain any longevity as it can quickly wear thin. Compare this once again to Facebook where you are likely to have all of your friends actively using it and you can see a difference in why people opt for Facebook.
4. Spam
Another interesting note is that perhaps Twitter was never that big in the first place. The massive spike in people using and signing up to Twitter could have been the result of many spammers signing up new accounts. As one reader on Mashable pointed out Twitter has got tough with spammers and so by banishing them the number of users will always decline and never return to the heights it once reached.
5. Facebook
I have mentioned Facebook throughout however it deserves a point of its own. The problem is that Twitter is always compared with Facebook and it in all honesty will never be a match for Facebook. I think by continuing to do this our expectations of Twitter becoming the number one social networking site will always look bleak. If Twitter was seen as its own entity as perhaps more of a platform to help distribute content and news then I think its usability will look more generous.
6. Tweets
Twitter has difficulty in overcoming the increasing consensus of the majority of tweets being pointless such as ‘breakfast cereal updates’. Back in August a study conducted by American market research firm Pear Analytics found that 40% of messages sent on twitter are in fact ‘pointless babble’. Not only is this Twitter’s sole offering but they also give a character limit which increases the chances of seeing useless information and obscure tweets. Facebook on the other hand offers more than simply the status updates to engage users.
7. User Retention
One of the main difficulties for Twitter is overcoming people signing up and then never using the service. A report from Nielsen Online found that the retention rate for Twitter was 40% and that many people stop using the service after a month thereby only reaching 10% of all internet users. It has also been found most Twitter users never tweet, or don’t follow anyone once they have joined.
8. Marketing
This could probably be a follow on to user engagement but the confusion of how to fully get the most out of Twitter could prove to be its downfall. Let’s face it Facebook’s growth is not just about your conventional users but also the fact it is easier to achieve a degree of brand engagement on Facebook than it is on Twitter. It’s been a year now since Twitter fully became a household name and yet it appears that brands still don’t understand how it fully leverage Twitter for marketing purposes. It has been found that a staggering 76% of brands are infrequent users which suggests the difficulty they are having in adopting the service for their benefit.
So that is my 8 points. This is not to say it is all bad for Twitter. I like thousands of others have found it immensely useful for sharing content and for SEO it is a godsend in discovering up-to-the-minute information. Also with the incorporation and further development of real-time search Twitter is going to be a major player in this realm and so its usefulness is not just limited to being your bog standard social networking site.
Also it is worth taking any stats published about Twitter usage with a pinch of salt as it is perhaps not taking into account people who access their Twitter accounts via third party applications such as Tweetdeck and mobile applications.
As always time will tell Twitter’s fate. There are some fears that if they don’t look at ways to increase numbers again then they may have to be acquired however I do think that judging it against its peak usage and Facebook is a bit unfair. Yes the honeymoon period has gone but they still get a decent amount of users which suggests that Twitter is going to be around for a long time yet…