Some reasons why I think @twitter is in trouble and what can be done about it
April 6 2011, 12:40 PM
I have been a big fan of Twitter for along time, and I have seen it in trouble before. But I think it is getting into trouble again, and as a result, I am losing interest in it.. Now alot of this may just apply to me, and for others, they might think: I don't have those problems at all. Maybe I follow people that I shouldn't follow. I did some deletes recently, but I still see these problems. I suspect others that use Twitter like me are having these problems too Given that, here's what I think are some of the current problems: * Less people followers and more service providers as followers: it is rare when I get someone to follow me now who is an actual person. I get a steady stream of service providers, but I seldom get other people. That wasn't the case a year ago. But there seems to be a saturation point.
* FF is not working any more: I noted that I saw alot of FFs last week. I noted it because I hadn't seen it in awhile. Once I would click through to see if I should follow them, but I find people recommend so many people on FF that it seems like work. I am sure people do it so as not to offend people (e.g. How come you didn't recommend me). But it makes me less likely to follow anyone.
* More and more "here, read this": the people I like to follow are those whom I feel I can make some sort of connection. They like or do something I like or do. However, I find more and more people are using twitter to broadcast. There's nothing wrong with that, but I find myself less and less interested in that. Tweets with little personality in them aren't the interesting. If you are going to use Blip or Foursquare, for instance, why should I care about that? If you put a link to a blog post, why should I click through? I confess I am guilty of that from time to time, but for some folks, that's all they do.
* Antisocial behavior: I am also finding more and more anti-social behavior on twitter, too. One of these is overly negative tweets or tweets with alot of swearing in them. Another is tweet bloat. For example, I like Roger Ebert, but he tweets too much for me. It's as if he is in desparate to drive as much traffic as he can to his site. The same can be said for some other sites that are sharing information. At some point, it feels like work to follow them. Likewise with negative tweets. I don't mind and somewhat expect people to say something negative from time to time. But if your tweets are one long exploration of why your life is miserable, you might want to take it some place else, for your own sake.
* More and more spam: I find the level of spam is really creeping up. I feel it is my responsibility to block them to help get rid of them, but it is a chore. So that's great, Bernie, you have a list of problems. What do you suggest? I have a few suggestions. * Make it easier to block spam: I should be able to block spam with one click. There should be a BLOCK next to REPLY, for instance.
* Make it easier to put people on mute: I would like the ability to temporarily block people for a period of time, be it an hour, a day, or a week, or indefinitely. They could go into a mute list, and I could unmute them later. That way, if someone is drunk tweeting or enraged or whiney or live tweeting or boasting about how great conference XYZ is, I can put them on mute until all that is over.
* Make it easier to filter messages: I should be able to filter tags and other text that I am not interested in following. Likewise I would like others to be able to do it for me. If I am following a sporting event or attending a conference, allow others to filter that stuff out. They might be interested in other things I am saying, but for stuff like that, they can ignore it.
* Make it easier to create lists: I should be able to go through my followers easier and through a subset of them in a list very quickly. I was doing this today and it was taking me along time to do, and I follow relatively few people (less than 500).
* Make the follow suggestions better: I realize this is easier said than done, but I found the features of Mr. Tweet, for example, were much stronger than what Twitter currently has. They should look at bringing some of that back. As for me, I am going through the process of creating lists. Then I am going to write some scripts to process the lists so that I can filter people and put them on mute. But that's just me. I am sure lots of people would like these features as well, and twitter should provide them. I think that would lead to continue growth and success for Twitter and the people that use it. Thanks for reading this. And if you are a person who uses twitter personally, you can follow me at @blm849 and I will follow you back!
* FF is not working any more: I noted that I saw alot of FFs last week. I noted it because I hadn't seen it in awhile. Once I would click through to see if I should follow them, but I find people recommend so many people on FF that it seems like work. I am sure people do it so as not to offend people (e.g. How come you didn't recommend me). But it makes me less likely to follow anyone.
* More and more "here, read this": the people I like to follow are those whom I feel I can make some sort of connection. They like or do something I like or do. However, I find more and more people are using twitter to broadcast. There's nothing wrong with that, but I find myself less and less interested in that. Tweets with little personality in them aren't the interesting. If you are going to use Blip or Foursquare, for instance, why should I care about that? If you put a link to a blog post, why should I click through? I confess I am guilty of that from time to time, but for some folks, that's all they do.
* Antisocial behavior: I am also finding more and more anti-social behavior on twitter, too. One of these is overly negative tweets or tweets with alot of swearing in them. Another is tweet bloat. For example, I like Roger Ebert, but he tweets too much for me. It's as if he is in desparate to drive as much traffic as he can to his site. The same can be said for some other sites that are sharing information. At some point, it feels like work to follow them. Likewise with negative tweets. I don't mind and somewhat expect people to say something negative from time to time. But if your tweets are one long exploration of why your life is miserable, you might want to take it some place else, for your own sake.
* More and more spam: I find the level of spam is really creeping up. I feel it is my responsibility to block them to help get rid of them, but it is a chore. So that's great, Bernie, you have a list of problems. What do you suggest? I have a few suggestions. * Make it easier to block spam: I should be able to block spam with one click. There should be a BLOCK next to REPLY, for instance.
* Make it easier to put people on mute: I would like the ability to temporarily block people for a period of time, be it an hour, a day, or a week, or indefinitely. They could go into a mute list, and I could unmute them later. That way, if someone is drunk tweeting or enraged or whiney or live tweeting or boasting about how great conference XYZ is, I can put them on mute until all that is over.
* Make it easier to filter messages: I should be able to filter tags and other text that I am not interested in following. Likewise I would like others to be able to do it for me. If I am following a sporting event or attending a conference, allow others to filter that stuff out. They might be interested in other things I am saying, but for stuff like that, they can ignore it.
* Make it easier to create lists: I should be able to go through my followers easier and through a subset of them in a list very quickly. I was doing this today and it was taking me along time to do, and I follow relatively few people (less than 500).
* Make the follow suggestions better: I realize this is easier said than done, but I found the features of Mr. Tweet, for example, were much stronger than what Twitter currently has. They should look at bringing some of that back. As for me, I am going through the process of creating lists. Then I am going to write some scripts to process the lists so that I can filter people and put them on mute. But that's just me. I am sure lots of people would like these features as well, and twitter should provide them. I think that would lead to continue growth and success for Twitter and the people that use it. Thanks for reading this. And if you are a person who uses twitter personally, you can follow me at @blm849 and I will follow you back!
395 views and 2 responses
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Apr 6 2011, 1:42 PMArchimedes Trajano (Facebook) responded:I don't follow much people. For the most part I use Twitter for water cooler conversations and generally the people I follow are the ones I care about.
The @spam does get a bit annoying, but it isn't so bad for me as of yet.
I don't use lists at the moment and I don't normally have any auto post set up to twitter to my knowledge.
Of course this is contrary to building a personal brand quickly on twitter, but I think it is better to establish a relationship slowly and keep my blogs separate.
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Apr 6 2011, 1:44 PMSolangeNoir (Twitter) responded:You have very valid points (some of which drive me nuts, also) and good possible solutions. I've made some great new connections lately, but the bots and marketers have outnumber them, vastly. The mute option would be particularly FABULOUS. (I'm betting you've wanted to mute me with the constant stream of JP RTs at times)