It’s
a funny thing to see talk of Twitter’s demise, especially when you consider it
has over 300 million users. But when you
look at its profitability (it loses half a billion a year), and its anemic new
user growth (it ticked up a few percent), you have to wonder what’s going on.
Less
than half the world uses the Internet.
Yes, this may surprise you, but only 3.17 billion people are online –
out of a world population of 7.20 billion people. Though only 42% of the world is online, North
America outstrips Internet adoption by far, as 86.9% of the continent is linked
in.
So
of the Internet universe, one in ten users are logged onto Twitter. By comparison, 1 in 2 users are on Facebook
(1.49 billion). Though Twitter has been
linked to changing the news cycle, altering people’s careers, and enabling
revolutions, it is a failure at growing into a successful business. Everyone seemingly uses Twitter for a profit
but Twitter.
Many
authors and publishers would not be sad to see Twitter vanish but the truth is
we’ve become dependent on it. Even
though Twitter seems dumb with its artificial 140-character limit – it is
great at connecting people globally, sharing info instantaneously, and in
calling attention to books. Of course,
just as the industry got along before Twitter, it would survive without
it. Something else would take its place
or an author’s precious time would just get scattered to existing activities
like FB, YouTube, and blogging.
But
all joking aside, you have to wonder if Twitter will survive. Even though it seems like a key leader in the
social media revolution of the early 21st century, it still needs to
turn a profit and grow its user base.
It’s not a non-profit. It has to
be a real company.
It’s
stunning that if as many as 300 million people are on Twitter, why haven’t the
other Internet users joined the party?
Facebook will grow because it is leading the movement to get the rest of
the planet wired into the Internet, but Twitter lags even with those already
plugged in. 90% of digital users have not signed up for Twitter.
Twitter
needs to make some changes or improvements in order to lure more people
in. Here’s what I would suggest:
1.
Do
away with “follow” limitations – let people follow as many as they want.
2.
Eliminate
the 140-character limitation – at least triple it. 520 characters would only cover 70-75 words,
but that’s a big improvement over the abrupt and illiterate tweets that swim
the net currently.
3.
Get
a spokesman for Twitter. Who knows who created Twitter and who has heard of that
person speak? Zuckerburg is the poster
boy for FB and he helps humanize the site.
Twitter has a stupid bird.
4.
Change
the way people see tweets from those they followed. Each user should have one
tweet a week that is emailed to those who follow him or her. Forced exposure would excite those, like
authors, who desperately want to get the word out about their books.
Twitter
will be around for a while, provided Wall Street investors and traders still
view it as a worthwhile commodity. But
at some point, the money will dry up because investors are looking for a
profit – not to make donations. And when
Twitter eventually is silenced, the book industry will adjust and go on as if
Twitter never happened.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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