RIP Twitter. It's Walking Dead

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Mitch Wagner 2/10/2017 | 4:05:19 PM

Re: Social media is social Personally, I'd like to see social media get out of its silos and go back to the open web.

I wanted a pony when I was 8 years old. That didn't work out either.

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brooks7 2/10/2017 | 3:13:56 PM

Re: Social media is social Yeah that alternate Facebook is called Myspace.

seven

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mhhf1ve 2/10/2017 | 2:55:29 PM

Re: Social media is social Well, if Twitter doesn't want to change and keep its original concept of not requiring all users to verify their identities, then it will die. Twitter 2.0 will pivot and become much more of a media property that wants to know the exact demographics of its users and keep track of everyone. That's not exactly the platform for political dissent that Twitter currently represents....

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danielcawrey 2/10/2017 | 2:22:28 PM

Re: Social media is social I use Twitter every day. So I still think it is useful.

The problem is that Twitter as a company hasn't figured out how to make money from this thing. I don't think the service is going to die, as there will be a media company out there that values what this thing is.

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mhhf1ve 2/10/2017 | 1:20:41 PM

Re: Social media is social > "The only way for Twitter to get over that is to become Facebook, and we already have a Facebook."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think there's space for more than one flavor of "Facebook" or social media. Just like there's a CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc... I think of Facebook as a channel that has all the hit "must see" shows, and Twitter is a public-access channel. Instagram was a separate channel, but FB bought it. There's Snap. And Pinterest is like a Food Network....

I don't necessarily think Twitter is dead, but it needs something to turn it around. I think its fatal flaw is that it doesn't collect enough information on its users. Anyone can create a fake Twitter account, and there are millions of Twitter accounts that are anonymous. That makes it incredibly difficult to target ads.. if ads continue to be the main way for it to make money.

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mhhf1ve 2/10/2017 | 1:11:13 PM

Re: Paging Mr. Twain > "It would be fun to see Amazon buy Twitter."

Yes! Bezos in control of whether or not Trump can tweet at 3am? Pure hilarity!

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inkstainedwretch 2/10/2017 | 12:56:45 PM

Social media is social Social media is different because it's social, which is to say that any social medium is subject to the same dynamics as any other fad. Twitter cannot grow because it's old and stodgy and new users would rather use Snapchat and if it isn't Snapchat it will be something else. Worse, as Mitch pointed out, it's built for feature phones. The only way for Twitter to get over that is to become Facebook, and we already have a Facebook.

AOL and Facebook are different from Twitter and somewhat akin to each other. They are both more flexible as channels.

Facebook is each user's personal channel, for their own observations and the content they want to aggregate. Nobody needs two of those.

AOL is a channel for whoever owns it, serving a similar purpose as NBC or Starz, with similar limitations and opportunities. They're all going to get X number of viewers / subscribers, and whoever owns the channel sells the audience to advertisers. Yahoo too.

Twitter's self-limits make it very limited and very inflexible as a channel, which is one of several reasons that make Twitter a hostile environment for ads.

You ever download a free game on your phone that is ad-supported? The game might take 60 seconds to play, but you have to endure a 15-second and sometimes even a 30-second ad? You either buy the game or abandon it. No one keeps going back for any experience that is 33% advertising.

Same with Twitter. You include ads, and the ad-to-experience ratio becomes unbearable.

The people who urged Twitter to go public and become something it's not, hoping to sell advertising were deluded.

-- Brian Santo

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mendyk 2/10/2017 | 12:02:58 PM

Re: Barrier to entry Judging from some of the more famous Twitter users, I'd say the mental barrier to using the service is low.

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mendyk 2/10/2017 | 12:01:12 PM

Re: Paging Mr. Twain It would be fun to see Amazon buy Twitter.

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Kelsey Ziser 2/10/2017 | 11:59:12 AM

Barrier to entry For individuals who aren't already on Twitter I often hear them say something like "Oh I should probably join Twitter, right? Well, I don't know..." It's like they think they either need training on how to use it and/or aren't sure what to do with an account once they've created one. I don't know how that disconnect started but it seems like there's this mental barrier to entry.

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