Twitter: Acquisition vs. Retention

Couple thoughts:

A lot of people sign up to Twitter without really getting it. I signed up over a year ago, I think, and didn’t really get into it for several months.

So there may be some lag between sign up and fervent user.

Also …

Twitter is probably the least likely of the big three (including Facebook and MySpace) to a connector of people you *already know* … meaning that it will likely be harder to keep users that sign up if their “first life” friends aren’t there too.

I read a funny blog about “twitter enlightenment” today that made me laugh, here is the link – 10 Steps to Twitter Enlightenment.

Sweet!

The follow vs. follow through argument is, at its core, a study in the competition going on between means of communication and meaningful communication. As our lives are increasingly consumed by Facebook pages, IM, Twitter, RSS feeds, Digg Thumbs Up’s, url shorteners, embedded HTML, emoticons and hyperlinks, there is little doubt about the premium placed on timely information. It has reached a point where the value of information seemingly diminishes in direct proportion to how old it is. As if an article written six months ago might well as be ten years old.

This tendency will only increase as we hurtle towards a real-time web. FriendFeed has launched the world’s first real-time, live streaming, social media service that is set to revolutionize all media. Yet as people constantly and seamlessly update their “lifestream”, I wonder about the role of meaningful communication?

The funny – and yes timely – Flutter April Fools joke (below) parodied our growing obsession with instantaneous information, exposing the growing misunderstanding that the newness of a means of communication automatically makes that communication meaningful.

The important distinction, as Zeus Jones points out, is that while real time information loses value over time, timeless pieces grow in value.

When you consider brands also rely on an emotional connection with their customers to motivate their behavior, this confusion can be costly. Of course, a meaningful connection isn’t always timeless but the same limitations apply. Hoping to generate trust, interest or loyalty in 140 characters alone is as misguided as a guy wheeling out his best one-liner at a bar. Brands must use a composite of media to build an effective relationship with their customers, rather than see social media as an end in itself. Even when a brand, its products or social entrepreneurship becomes the focal point for conversation it must also play the overarching role of “aggregator and curator”, as Joseph Jaffe asserts, “to provide a place where consumers can see the conversations pulled together, engage with the brand, hear the story in the brand’s voice”.

A means of communication is not an end in itself. It exists to create a connection that enables us to recognize ourselves in others. If our daily exchanges are reduced to a teeming sea of quips, asides and blunt reductions, we simply enlist ourselves in the service of data tracking. As if our lives were some enormous marketing focus group and our communication ticks for empty boxes.

When communication becomes a shooting gallery, the first casualty is dialogue that adds meaning to our lives. As both marketers and consumers, we would be foolish to let this happen. Not wonder we have trouble holding on to so many people.

The low retention rates don’t surprise me. I reckon Twitter is just experiencing a ‘next big thing’ top of the bell curve popularity that will fall away.
At only 140 characters max there’s not enough space to keep people coming back.
It’s more of a referrer to other things than a destination.
I know that Ashton Kucher and Oprah may be getting over the one million mark but, apart from them, who’s really able to boast those kinds of numbers?
For me, a well written and insightful blog is much more of a draw and something I can get more involved with.

I’m not really surprised with the low Twitter retention rate.

The tool is especially effective when continuous updates are needed, like sports events or emergency situations. But for ordinary people it is not an easy thing to tweet regularly, because of its less interactive aspect compared with Facebook or other social media.

However, I think mobile devices have something to do with the future of Twitter. Recently I did a survey among college students for my assignment, and 58 percent answered that they use a mobile device as a tool to access social media. The number is likely to go up as technology advances and that trend might help Twitter to keep up its retention rate. Like text messaging, the microblogging may flourish with mobile devices.

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