Twitter posted an YoY growth of 48% and a $710 million revenue last quarter. Despite the seemingly stellar performance, Twitter got a lot of flak from media and other online pundits.
The reason: A flat MAU (Monthly active users) overall and a negative growth if one excludes the SMS users.
But for many others, the necessity or need to give 'real time' information to their customers is not paramount. For instance, a consumer goods company may choose to use twitter as a broadcast medium as opposed to a communication medium.
The reason: A flat MAU (Monthly active users) overall and a negative growth if one excludes the SMS users.
Problems with Twitter
Many product experts & online gurus have written about the chink in twitter's armory & how they can overcome it. You can read about them here, here & here. The key takeaway from all of these blogs:
- Confusing, intimidating and a scary product experience. This is the reason we see so many new signups followed by long periods of inactivity.
- Lack of effective measures to tackle threats & abuses
- Lack of ego massage. Remember people literally start with zero followers, and find hard to build their follower base and eventually give up.
Not the go-to channel for advertisers
Apart from the above mentioned problems, twitter does not compare favorably as a platform of choice for wide section of advertisers. Many (including me) see twitter as a platform for getting 'real time news & updates'. The nature of the product suits certain kinds of businesses and categories very well like news channels, businesses in service sector and personal technology products among others.
But for many others, the necessity or need to give 'real time' information to their customers is not paramount. For instance, a consumer goods company may choose to use twitter as a broadcast medium as opposed to a communication medium.
Inconsistent product experience
However, the core problem with Twitter has been the inconsistent product experience. I have been an avid user of Twitter since 2012 and I am addicted to the platform. I primarily see it as a source of quick, authentic, useful information & discussions. As a customer, everyone needs a consistent product experience. I wouldn't patronize or recommend a super-classy restaurant that has turned into a filthy highway joint. Same is the case with twitter.
I would go on & classify the different kind of emotions/experiences with Twitter into the following buckets:
- Being informed: I share a lot of useful stuff on twitter. Links, tweets pertaining to things like marketing, content, advertising, trivia, hacks etc and I follow people who share similar things. I enjoy the process of finding stuff real time.
- Entertainment: There is lot of pun, humor around twitter which instantly puts a smile on my face. It comes as a welcome break in your hectic day.
- Hopeful: I feel a lot more hopeful when I see positive initiatives from government agencies (Railways, MEA), NGO's (Chennai floods, Nepal earthquake, Mumbai rains). The spirit of individuals & celebrities was something very heartening to see.
- Motivated: Quotes & insights from marketing gurus, startup founders , success stories are all sources of motivation.
- And then there are certain days, when there is so much negativity by political parties, fans of actors over downright stupid issues (at least in India). Off late, tweets of this genre has dominated my timeline. "Influencers" with motivated intent make sure they bombard your timeline with tweets that are negative, and has overdose of a "brand messages".
As you had seen from the above example, the dominant feeling of using a product changes drastically during the course of a single day. If the dominant feeling is more negative or intimidating, one tends to stay away from the platform for most part of the day.
A quick poll on the various emotions a user go through on twitter has been enumerated here which pretty much testifies the pre-dominant feeling of using twitter for an average Indian user.
A quick poll on the various emotions a user go through on twitter has been enumerated here which pretty much testifies the pre-dominant feeling of using twitter for an average Indian user.
The onus of keeping the time-line clean, positive and buzzing with latest stuff squarely lies with the user. He/she has to follow the right people, be part of the 'right' lists, and be smart about who they want to be followed by. I feel that's too much of an effort from the user side.
Sense this: You will still able to see tweets/posts of a person, his tweets will still be visible to you if the tweet is RT'ed by a person you follow. The whole point of avoiding negativity and consuming information "I want" goes for a toss.
So, what problem of connectivity is twitter solving?
Final thoughts:
The strong and visceral emotions can take a toll on most of the people, including regular users. What chance will a newbie have if they are put off the bile on their very first day on twitter? Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have their own short comings, but split personality & unpredictability is not one among them!
Your take?
