Twitter is a great new tool for the Internet savvy but it may already have past its prime as a way to keep in touch. Just looking around at Twitter profiles shows that most users are following hundreds of people which means your Twitter screen on the web has all new Tweets about every five minutes. Not exactly user friendly!
Twitterers following thousands of people like Robert Scoble (16,188) and Jason Calicanas (8,916) can’t possibly read all of the Tweets they sign up to follow. Let’s be honest, most people are Twittering as a strategy to either promote themselves or their business. Twitter has become much more about talking than listening for many people.
The general perception is that the number of Twitter followers is similar to an email list or a feed count. In other words as Twitter evolves it’s changing from a social networking tool to a marketing strategy. Evidence of this is the number of links you are seeing in tweets.
Nothing is wrong with this, but if Twitter is to prosper as a social announcement tool rather than a new way to blast a self serving message then options on filtering posts and prioritizing posters is needed.
Some of these options are available in outside apps, but these are used by few compared to the number of people Twittering. For Twitter to catch on with the average person features similar to an email client with files, folders, deleting, sorting and searching need to be incorporated in Twitter upon sign up.
Many people still do use Twitter effectively by being selective about who they follow and which tweets go to their mobile device. Twitter is often used like a public IM to send messages to one person but where everyone can read them. Twitter is fascinating in both how it is used and its tremendous growth.
However, I think the writing on the Twitter wall is that more and more users see Twitter as a new free way to promote, promote and promote.
Follow this author on Twitter: twitter.com/richord
