Hawaii's Science, Technology and New Media Community
Twitter Gets a Fail Grade for Loyalty?
I am sure many of you are seeing the latest Neilson reports that Twitter users fail to come back after a month at a rather astonishingly high rate.
Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.
I am not surprised as Twitter's "problem" is that is so easy to use. People are jumping on it like flies, because it is so easy, but not spending enough time or getting enough mentoring to truly understand how to leverage Twitter and what it's core values are - many of which are still be discovered. And let's face it, a lot of those "users" are spam accounts that Twitter does a decent job of deleting or that voluntarily leave once they've gotten the click-thrus they wanted.
Then there are the many marketing experts who have been on it for 3 months telling people what it is and how to use it. It appears so accessible. But in reality, if someone starts describing it as "You just answer the question, 'What are you doing now?'" I consider that a red flag of ignorance!
From people not knowing when to use an alias vs. a real name, to the spammers, to the false notion that more followers is better, there is more people don't understand about Twitter than they do.
Yes, I am a snob, I have been on Twitter since April 1, 2007 - invited by my friend Chris Brogan. That also makes me experienced and I have seen a lot of trends come and go through Twitter. It may turn out not to be of value for the masses. Still, I wish people didn't abandon things before they had a decent understanding of how they actually work.
I'll go upload a video case study presented at our first meeting of the Social Media Club (you are all invited! - next one is May 8th) that shows the other side of Twitter and come back and link to it here.
FWIW I offer training in how to use Twitter and would be delighted to work with any companies who are wanting to use it as a business tool. And as you folks know, a tool is only as useful as the person using it, and if the person doesn't know how to use it, well, please don't blame the tool!
Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.
I am not surprised as Twitter's "problem" is that is so easy to use. People are jumping on it like flies, because it is so easy, but not spending enough time or getting enough mentoring to truly understand how to leverage Twitter and what it's core values are - many of which are still be discovered. And let's face it, a lot of those "users" are spam accounts that Twitter does a decent job of deleting or that voluntarily leave once they've gotten the click-thrus they wanted.
Then there are the many marketing experts who have been on it for 3 months telling people what it is and how to use it. It appears so accessible. But in reality, if someone starts describing it as "You just answer the question, 'What are you doing now?'" I consider that a red flag of ignorance!
From people not knowing when to use an alias vs. a real name, to the spammers, to the false notion that more followers is better, there is more people don't understand about Twitter than they do.
Yes, I am a snob, I have been on Twitter since April 1, 2007 - invited by my friend Chris Brogan. That also makes me experienced and I have seen a lot of trends come and go through Twitter. It may turn out not to be of value for the masses. Still, I wish people didn't abandon things before they had a decent understanding of how they actually work.
I'll go upload a video case study presented at our first meeting of the Social Media Club (you are all invited! - next one is May 8th) that shows the other side of Twitter and come back and link to it here.
FWIW I offer training in how to use Twitter and would be delighted to work with any companies who are wanting to use it as a business tool. And as you folks know, a tool is only as useful as the person using it, and if the person doesn't know how to use it, well, please don't blame the tool!
Tags: howto, knowhow, media, skepticism, social, tool, training, twitter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Graydon on -
I'd agree to an extent.
Twitter is what you make it to be, and most people can't be bothered with making it something :)
I started using Twitter with a couple of specific goals in mind, first being to get involved in the local hawaii community, as I'm new to the state; and secondly to connect up with various techie people.
I've done both and more, so I'm a happy user. If you come in and just post "had breakfast" "bought a coffee, what's with starbucks" and never actively set about finding people to follow you'll swiftly become bored.
Twitter really could help themselves by running a few videos or suggestions on how you might want to use it.
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Permalink Reply by Roxanne Darling on -
Here is the link to Ed's video Case Study on Using Twitter to Attract Customers
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