Hubspot - Twitter Growth
For all of its hype over the last few years, I don’t see how Twitter can possibly thrive going forward. To me it is all hype and early adopter craziness, and unfortunately it is getting killed by my one dollar vs two dollar argument…
Would you rather have one dollar or two dollars?
The answer of course is two dollars.
Or, in this case…
Would you rather use Twitter or Facebook to post updates?
Hello, McFly… Facebook of course!
In the long run Facebook wins out BIG TIME. Twitter growth is slowing dramatically, and Facebook is adding features left and right that in the end will crush it.
Why should I waste my time logging into Twitter when I can do the same thing on Facebook, reach more people, and do a ton of other stuff like sign up for events, look for bikini pictures of ‘friends’, or post links that actually have thumbnails.
REAL PEOPLE DON’T TWEET. Sorry Twitter-fanatics, but me thinks you are screwed.
One interesting thing that could happen would be if Google, Apple, or (gahst) Microsoft bought Twitter and joined it with other existing services as Dave McClure points out. But even if that happens I still think Twitter is dead.
It never was really that cool anyway, right?
I agree. Never really understood the point of twitter. Now you can make updates in facebook which automatically update twitter. What’s the bloody point?
Twitter isn’t for status updates. Facebook is a lot better at conversations (threaded, etc). Twitter is more of a one-way medium (celebs, broadcasting info, etc), Facebook is much more social-graph focus (smaller groups, more intense interactions).
The app ecosystem on Twitter is thriving, especially location-based, viral type apps. Most work on both platforms.
Interesting debate.
IMHO, comparing Twitter and Facebook is like comparing a scooter and a mini-van. They both get you where you want to go, but the mini-van didn’t put the scooter out of business, or vice-versa.
Yes, both apps have updates. But Twitter is streamlined, people tend to have weaker social ties, is easily searchable, and has the potential to be more anonymous.
Facebook is feature-heavy, people tend to know each other in person (strong ties).
A job search is effective on Twitter, not on Facebook. Facebook is great for keeping up with family- Twitter, not so much. I have been exposed to a wider spectrum of ideas on Twitter than FB, but I feel more connected to people in real life on Facebook (events, etc.)
For some (like me), it’s worth it to have and use both. For others, it’s one or the other. While Twitter had a fad peak, it won’t die altogether– unless it’s replaced by a similar product.
-Julia
Very good points Julia. I think you are right, it won’t ‘die’ – I fess up, I used a little hyperbole in the title.
I think FB is slowly creeping towards owning the space. With a few more iterations they could do everything that Twitter does. The feature-heaviness though is an interesting take. Thanks for the comments!
I feel the opposite way about facebook and twitter. I think facebook is heading down the myspace path – in terms of sacrificing real innovation and the user experience in favor of ever-increasing attempts to monetize – and will become an online wasteland primarily of interest to the most active users (i.e. young people) and to marketers/business types.
There’s a lack of transparency on facebook that to me illustrates their disregard for the general user. Significant privacy concerns occur seemingly every couple of months as they change the way the site discloses personal information, and only offer an “opt-out” afterwards knowing that most users will not care or simply not pay attention. Before they had a clean, minimalist design that distinguished them from myspace, while now it seems increasingly cluttered with ads, links, those inane farmville updates, etc.
Furthermore, the leader at the top Zuckerberg comes across as a kind of unsavory character who doesn’t mind taking advantage of the users. That awareness that they have a captive audience who pays nothing to use the site seems to give them the rationale for trying to mine the user for all they’re worth, but I don’t think that will prove to be sustainable or good business in the long-run.
And finally, while both sites each started with a great, simple idea (just an online yearbook in facebook’s case and little else), twitter continues to execute that one idea very well even as its hype dies down, while facebook seems to be increasingly getting away from that in its quest to become the “portal” to the internet. I don’t think many people actively desire a locked-down and non-anonymous internet environment where many of your activities are tracked and the sites you visit linked to your facebook account, not to mention all the data you sign over to facebook already as soon as you put up a profile, but that seems to be the direction they are heading.
Maybe I am just one of the early adopters whose love of a service inevitably turns into hatred once it achieves huge mainstream success, who knows, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that facebook’s current practices are highly questionable and might lead to a high valuation and good charts right now but not necessarily to lasting relevance.
I 100% agree. And I should know… all that I do on Facebook is check for updates by Withers and look at my “friends” binkni photos!! LOOK OUT! I pine for the day facebook gets more “european” and allows for more skin in photos
Happy Fifth of May Withers!!
Hey, everybody, Do you really know Twitter?
Because you are using a comparison of the “Web visits” in Compete (www.facebook.com visits vs http://www.twitter.com visits)
Do you know that Twitter users use other third-party software interface (API)?
Maybe you’re right in your analysis, maybe not.
To be fair, perhaps first it is better to understand the system, and perhaps it is better to compare “twetts” vs. “how many exclusive FB updates are, because many people upgrade their FB directly from twitter), etc, etc.
And I agree that follow different objectives.
Best
McDonk-
Your words are truly inpirational!!!
If only you would reveal your true identity?
Its apparent that you guys dont understand how to use twitter. Twitter is for listening. If i want to listen to an aggregate of diverse info, twitter / rss feeds are the way to go. If i want to talk nonsense to my friends – fb. They key to twitter is subscribing tot he right people.
Best
Todd
bu twitters over capacity issues will kill it.