One of my Facebook groups is commenting on this article The End of Twitter in The New Yorker.  I am not sure it is the “end,” however, Twitter is making some changes that could significantly decrease their user base even more.

We have already seen the demise of conversations on Twitter. Twitter decided to install a Favorite button, now called the Like button, and since this update, people will click on that instead of replying or retweeting.

Now Twitter is working on monetizing in a similar way to FB. Basically, your tweets will not go to all your followers, and you will need to pay for more followers to see the tweet. Again, trying to be like Facebook is going to decrease their user base.

The big mistake Twitter is making is the fact that they are not trying to be themselves. They are trying to change to look more like everyone else. I have already mentioned that what works for one organization may not work for another because each organization is unique. Twitter is not Facebook, so they should stop converting to be more like Facebook or any other social media format for that matter. Twitter has their own unique features that could be explored and tweaked to make their platform more valuable to users.

For example, Twitter has been sitting on a gold mine, their easy list feature. If there is one feature that could have been used as an upgrade to monetize, this would have been it. When trying to reach the right audiences, this segmentation would have been amazing, and being able to send a tweet only to those people would have been extremely helpful. This feature would have been perfect to add to a premium account.

Also, coming up with new ways to create features for hashtag communities would have been the way to go.

I do not feel it is the end of Twitter now, but if they keep changing to be like everyone else, they won’t really be Twitter after all.  I am hoping they will wise up to the fact that it would be best to follow their niche and create new upgrades that consider their own strengths.

I have met some incredible people on Twitter, and it would be a shame if the ability to meet more amazing people ended due to Twitter’s lack of focus on being themselves.

In the same breath, when considering building your own audiences, it is best to focus on who you are (and not try to be anyone else) and go from there.

Thoughts?

Cheers to happy and loyal audiences,
Shoshana

Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder, ADS