Is Twitter Tanking? An Update

Obviously, those of us who suscribe to Twitter are Tweeting more. Maybe this means we need to be seeking to spread the word to others who are not presently using Twitter. I recently did a seminar for the company I work for (Nashville Wraps) and part of my presentataion was to explain how Twitter is a great B to B way to get your message across. The next day I had several new followers that were also new Twitter users. I personally use Tweetdeck & Hootsuite to monitor Tweets – rarely visit my homepage.

In the age of transparency and authenticity, by not being totally upfront about the usage stats, Twitter is doing itself a disservice, and this strategy of opacity can be fatal.

If usage among existing users has gone up, it is all the more reason to own up, even if the numbers have flatlined or gone down. We will rally to its cause, just because we are vested in it. The biggest reason to be transparent though, is Google Wave.

Just wanted it to be clearer. )

Cheers,
Prince

Cheers,
Prince

It’s true. In this cynical age we are getting conditioned to mistrust everything. (Melting glaciers, global warming, only the wealthy will pay more taxes…) Nowadays, without substantiation, any comment or estimate is likely to be suspect. And since we are all running a business, we need some tangible evidence that our efforts are being put to the best use. Without reliable stats, we fly blind. Now it may be that new users are leveling off. It may be that Twitter is becoming more highly concentrated with business users, which would offset the negative impact of the leveling off of total population growth

But whatever the case, users and the rest of the media is entitled to know the state of affairs. And whatever the case, the information will be neutral for Twitter, since, in a short time, the market will intuit the true state of affairs. Markets are smart that way!

Another great, post, Jeff, zeroing in on a topic around Twitter. Checking out stats from compete.com comparing usage from last year shows interesting trends. We can tell you that the number of usernames seem to be dwindling, the number of individuals in our circle of influence that are migrating towards twitter is increasing, and our volume of tweets and retweets are increasing steadily. We too think that not allowing this two way communication of information that has become the backbone of social media is of concern, and could potentially lead other social networks to pick up where Twitter is lacking, and cause Twitter to die a slow death similar to myspace.

@evansmediagroup

Great post. It is strange that Twitter won’t share more of the stats. As businesses decide to focus more energy on marketing and engaging on Twitter, having data available to support their ongoing investment in social media is critical. While metrics like increases in connections, leads & sales are most important, strength of the network is a pretty basic need too. Human nature makes me distrust Twitter’s secrecy and suspect that some of the numbers undermine their business case.

Analytic data for sites I manage shows increased visitor traffic from Twitter over the past year. Initially I was seeing high bounce rates but over time the quality of the Twitter traffic seems to be improving.

Unlike Andy P, I am seeing many more companies and people on Twitter engaging socially and not just focusing all their tweets on marketing. Even without solid numbers I am encouraged by the platform as a way to socialize and at the same time generate business leads.

@evolutionfiles

We all hope Twitter
comes out with clear numbers and comes out clean.