TWITTER QUITTER

Just finished reading this recent news item. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/R...tters--756029/

I had no idea Twitter was suffering from such a low retention rate.

But to be fair, I don't think they are making a fair comparison. Their findings show that "even when Facebook and MySpace were emerging networks like Twitter is now, their retention rates were twice as high".

Fact is, FaceBook and My Space were more engaging from the start...simply due to their nature.

Twitter was not created for easy blog commenting, profiles, photo and video sharing or other basic social networking functions.

Businesses and marketers have really embraced Twitter. But if the majority audience is comprised of other businesses and marketers...then even the businesses and marketers may start feeling like they are getting nowhere.

I am not the most active Twitter member, but I update when I can (or when I feel like it). I am on FB daily, however.

Perhaps this is the problem with Twitter. The simplicity of nothing but 140 characters...nothing more and nothing less...has somehow lost its novelty and is beginning to decline in interest. There may be users who Tweet for a while, go "Wow" or "Cool Stuff". Then after a few weeks, the excitement wears off and they are left wondering, "Is there anything else to this? Is that it?"

Twitter is really for those who update frequently and have lots to share or convey without creating a whole new blog post each time.

Now another suspicion I have is that serious Tweeters who hunt down and use all the 3rd party tools out there are making their Tweeter world really effective and engaging.

But what about the average user. someone who is NOT a marketer. Someone who could care less about having a blog or website of their own. Perhaps they just joined Twitter to see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps they joined Twitter because Oprah and and Obama are on there.

So they play with it for a couple of weeks and then slowly fade away, leaving another dormant account unattended. There is nothing besides an endless flow of Tweets to keep them coming back.

I think Twitter really needs to work on this ASAP.

Twitter does a poor job of informing the average, non-savvy user of the various tools and plugins available. Sure you can search them out. But the whole point is to make things simple and quick. Show me a list of essential tools to make Twitter more engaging. Better yet...how about INCORPORATING them into the system!

Yes, I know they have a little window at the top right promoting one tool at a time. That's NOT ENOUGH, folks!

My Mom just recently started using the computer and checking email. You expect her to look for tools across a multitude of websites just to get her to stay active on Twitter?

The way it is right now, the "average joe" simply won't have enough interest in Twitter to really stay active.

You've already had tens of millions in venture capital handed to you. Why not buy up some of the best Twitter apps and make them your own. You may be surprised how much better your retention rate will be.

Another improvement I would love to see is to give people a more comprehensive profile page. Keep the 140 limit. That's fine. That's what it's all about. But if that's all you got that's proprietary, then don't be surprised by your low retention rate.

Finally, I myself get annoyed by 2 or 3 consecutive pages of updates from the same person trying to splice dozens of individual 140 character messages into a 1000 word post.

Yes I know...Tweet Deck and othher apps can help. But that is where the point of simplicity and ease of use for the "average joe" come to mind again.

Many users who signed up out of curiousity will get turned off when that's all they see.

I'm not a Twitter Quitter, and I don't want to see others leaving. I want to see this little birdy grow and sprout its large wings all over the web. But without progressive action from the Twitter brass, that will be a difficult task to pull off.