Why People Were Saying, RIP Twitter!

Why People Were Saying, RIP Twitter!

I've been a huge fan of Twitter since adopting it maybe a few years after its inception. It changed everything, and made social more real-time than ever before. So many things have changed in the 10 years that Twitter has been around and the reality is that people just don't understand it anymore, making it really difficult for Twitter to convert causal visitors into active users.

What has kept Twitter's loyal following around are the very things that may be killing it. 

Twitter stands out among Facebook and LinkedIn and such because of it's differing platform and features, it's literal, real-time nature. But the things that have kept Twitter's loyal following dedicated to its platform are the very things that may be killing it. It's change from favorites to likes (stars to hearts) caused an unnecessary outrage, last fall. Their latest change had people ready to jump ship on Twitter all together. 

Their latest change had people ready to jump ship from Twitter all together. 

Twitter has been soft-rolling out features like "while you were away", which shows popular posts which you probably didn't see but may be interested in. Twitter's plan was to expand the features of this tool to allow people to see more of the tweets they may not have read. With that, they're rolling out an optional algorithm for users similar to a very light version of Facebook's newsfeed algorithm. 

People freaked out!

When people heard this, they freaked out! Their dedicated users started tweeting about how Twitter must not know their following if they're going to take away the reverse chronological format of Twitter (newest first). In mutiny tweeps were trending #RIPTwitter and finally called for the leaders of Twitter to respond. 

Twitter confirmed that they're not making these changes out of ignorance, that it's going to be optional and won't change the user experience. Founder and current CEO, Jack Dorsey, was among the team members responding to the outrage assured users that these changes will only enhance the features users already love about Twitter. 

I'll always love Twitter, but these changes may make it increasingly difficult to promote businesses on their platform. Maybe it will help with the user experience and I could be wrong, but I may stop recommending the platform to new clients, if my theories are confirmed about what this will do to their content. 

Chuck Sebesta

Real Estate at Chuck Sebesta

8y

Great Read

Andrea Torti

Foreign Languages and Bioengineering

8y

On the other hand, users' outrage means people still care about Twitter: we need to be more pro-active, though; I prefer #SaveTwitter and #LongLiveTwitter: if one checks these hashtags, many interesting stuff and suggestion can be found!

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