Recent studies show that use of Twitter is slowing. For those of us who never really got Twitter, who, in fact, dislike Twitter, this is wonderful news.
- New Twitter enrollments are about 20% below July 2009 peak rate.
- Many Twitter accounts are inactive. About 25% have no followers and about 40% have never sent a single Tweet.
- Most Twitter users—about 80%—have tweeted fewer than 10 times.
Even the founders have moved on. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, announced Square, a mobile-payments company, in December.
However, as the founders of Twitter have always said, the users will determine the uses. If the inanity of a lot of Tweets drives business users away, so be it. If the ability to communicate in real time with legislators opens a new door of digital public affairs, so be it. If the traffic-driving potential attracts consumer brands and publishers, so be it. They put the tool (toy?) in our hands; now let’s see what we do with it.
Of course, anytime Bill Gates pays attention to a technology, the rest of us can be sure that there’s something there, something that the rest of us may be missing.
Microblogging, like text messaging, is fast and cheap. A lot of what’s out there will be noise but, again like text messaging, it’s permission based. If you’re judicious in whom you follow and the Twitter tools you use to communicate and allow others to communicate with you, it’s got its uses.
No, I do not want to read about balloon boy. If I had time to do that, I’d be home on the couch watching Wolf Blitzer make a fool of himself. But I do want to know what smart people whom I’ve selected have seen that I missed. For the right occasion, I want the immediacy of “you are there” type reporting.
Twitter drives me crazy but it does have its uses.
