Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#541

Post by Nicholas_C » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:15 AM UTC

nikcub wrote: post #128

1. cut costs by a lot. they shouldn't be spending $2B per year 2. allow the apps to be used without a login - with the default view showing 'what is on now'. almost every member of my family has attempted to use twitter at some point and just been confused. 3. reformat all the explore pages into ordinary twitter streams 4. acquire nuzzel. their view of 'whats on now' is better than twitter's view 5. drop the video pa…

>1. cut costs by a lot. they shouldn't be spending $2B per year

Which costs would you cut?

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#542

Post by postscapes1 » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:16 AM UTC

1) Let SMBs pay to get a social graph of particular users, fnd influencers, etc

2) Merge with Medium and jump on their token content payment system

3) Acquire Nuzzle and team to make Moments not a pile of crap

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#543

Post by firebones » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:17 AM UTC

xtweeeteer wrote: post #277

Lot of great ideas. The problem I see is execution (I'm an ex-employee). Primitive versions of most of the ideas suggested in these comments are tried and given up because they didnt really show huge difference in growth or other engagement numbers - This is partly because one of the below: 1) primitive implementation/design is very bad compared to the original idea. 2) There is huge reward in Twitter for starting ne…

Your comment leads to what may be the core advice I have: get better metrics.

Twitter has always suffered from being in the wake of metrics that their competitors excel at. That's led to an inability to manage investor expectations and focus on features and project prioritization that doesn't create long-term value.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#544

Post by mrep » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:23 AM UTC

jijji wrote: post #508

1) remove the 140 character limit. It was not a problem when you wrote it, and it definitely was not a problem today. 2) two factor phone verification should be removed. It makes people want to leave. Allow it to be turned on as an option, but don't force it in your users. 3) allow users to user your service without having an account. 4) increase the number of data analytic tools available for public use, tools that…

Food for thought: press enter twice after each bullet/number point which acts like starting a new paragraph (i don't know why they made that the format) but it makes it easier to read.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#545

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:23 AM UTC

jijji wrote: post #508

1) remove the 140 character limit. It was not a problem when you wrote it, and it definitely was not a problem today. 2) two factor phone verification should be removed. It makes people want to leave. Allow it to be turned on as an option, but don't force it in your users. 3) allow users to user your service without having an account. 4) increase the number of data analytic tools available for public use, tools that…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#546

Post by sova » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:27 AM UTC

Content aggregation.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#547

Post by babesh » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:35 AM UTC

For new users have them auto follow tweets nearby. This will be familiar to them and from there they can learn to follow and unfollow. Make following a lot more accessible.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#548

Post by mark_l_watson » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:46 AM UTC

I would offer a paid service with no 'promoted tweet' advertisements. Also, I liked it better as text only.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#549

Post by wingerlang » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:51 AM UTC

IAmGraydon wrote: post #531

mrb wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let people pay $1/month to raise their limit to 280 characters per message. http://blog.zorinaq.com/revenue-idea-for-twitter-1-per-month... Imagine a heated discussion on Twitter... how many would pay $1/month to be able to communicate their points more clearly? Preemptive reply: no, nobody reads Twitter over SMS anymore.

The idea is interesting, but you a forgetting something. In cases of extremely low cost (like $1), sometimes the payment process itself is seen as more costly than the payment itself. In other words, people may be willing to spend $1 for an additional sentence, but would they be willing to get their wallet, pull out the card, type in the number, name, billing address and security code? I bet not. Beyond that, using a…

> Beyond that, using a card would force users to attach a real identity to their account, even if it's not public. A lot of people wouldn't like the idea of that.

I think the majority of consumers have zero issues with it. And the people who do and ALSO care about identity/anonymity definitely could just get some pre-paid card.

Re: Ask HN: How would you turn Twitter around?

#550

Post by mrep » Wed, Mar 01, 2017, 4:53 AM UTC

TRY NEW THINGS!!!

There are lots of ideas in this thread that are worth trying out. However, despite being an early adopter, I have not once re-tried twitter after my first attempt as there have never been any compelling reasons to. Everyone hates on Google for shutting down failed products, but it is way better to try and fail than sit on the product you have.

I'll quote Walter Isaacson's book on what Steve Jobs said: One of Jobs's business rules was to never be afraid of cannibalizing yourself. "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will," he said. So even though an iPhone might cannibalize the sales of an iPod, or an iPad might cannibalize the sales of a laptop, that did not deter him.