Comments on: Can Twitter’s Growth Continue?

By: M

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:01:59 +0000

I recently read somewhere that only 10% of the users account for 90% of the posts and the remaining 90% are those who close to non-users and those who signed up just to check out what it was.

By: Saad

Saad — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:03:33 +0000

I agree that Twitter is not quite a phenomenon amongst teens. However I find this as one of the positives. The fact this medium is meant for more serious business draws some of the best from across the globe to be a part of this medium. Though it may be contested that this might deter the growth in long term, my opinion is that as teens move into older years, they would join the ride.

By: Ann Handley

Ann Handley — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:39:30 +0000

Allen Weiss wrote a post on this topic a few months ago, here:
What the Young People Say About Social Networking
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2009/03/what_the_young_people_say_abou.html
I tend to agree with Clay Parker Jones’s comment there, when he says, “Twitter isn’t valuable for younger folks (as far as I can see) because their friends aren’t on it. Their friends are on Facebook. And myspace. And sitting next to them in the quad.
“Whereas if you look at older folks–myself included–it’s much harder to meet people and to sustain relationships, simply because you’re not in the social pressure cooker that is university life.”
Then again, what do I know? I saw this in the teen room of my town’s local library this afternoon:
http://twitpic.com/6fank
So clearly SOME teens are using it… even if it’s only those who follow the librarian’s tweets!

By: Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:07:08 +0000

Hi, Paul. I’m curious – why do you think it’s imperative that the teen market engage with Twitter? The growth rate is on the up curve and will eventually level off, as with any new trend. Perhaps sustainable usage and engagement of the site should be the ultimate metric, rather than just acquiring new users.
I’d also be curious to learn what the Twitter attrition rate is? How many sign up and then lose interest?

By: Paul Dunay

Paul Dunay — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:30:39 +0000

@ Sonny – I agree – it feel like they don’t care about targeting teens – but I think they should care long term

By: Sonny Gill

Sonny Gill — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:17:23 +0000

Interesting points here, Paul, but I’d have to say that I don’t think Twitter really cares about targeting that teen market. Understandable, it’s a huge niche that’s typically intrigued by *most* social networks, but from Twitter’s standpoint, I’d assume they’re looking at sustainability from a revenue standpoint.
They obviously haven’t touched the revenue stream yet but I think it’s inevitable and they realize that the mainstream and tech markets will pull that stream in for them, not the teens.
On the flip side, Twitter has seemingly leaned more towards the mainstream than their original core tech/marketing markets that they began with at SXSW. We core users, IMO, would be more apt to pay for a pay-per model of sorts vs. millions of mainstream users. So to that, I feel Twitter has gone celebrity, too much and too fast, to be able to target a revenue model that would be most successful to them.