Is Twitter saturated? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#11

Post by jcromartie » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:06 PM UTC

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

brandnewlow wrote: post #9

So my startup uses Twitter as an extension of our news aggregator, as another way to distribute links that "go popular" with our users. Since June, we've kept up our same tweeting frequency and the quality of the stories has even shot up a bit. But referrals, click-thru's and retweets are down to about half of what they were in August. We were scratching our heads about this for a while. Maybe a lot of the folks livi…

Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed, or are you participating in conversation?

> Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed

Isn't that what it is? (totally serious here)

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#12

Post by brandnewlow » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:21 PM UTC

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

brandnewlow wrote: post #9

So my startup uses Twitter as an extension of our news aggregator, as another way to distribute links that "go popular" with our users. Since June, we've kept up our same tweeting frequency and the quality of the stories has even shot up a bit. But referrals, click-thru's and retweets are down to about half of what they were in August. We were scratching our heads about this for a while. Maybe a lot of the folks livi…

Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed, or are you participating in conversation?

Either way, we've done exactly the same thing throughout the whole period.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#13

Post by steveklabnik » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:29 PM UTC

jcromartie wrote: post #11

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed, or are you participating in conversation?

> Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed Isn't that what it is? (totally serious here)

If you just use it for that, you're missing out on a lot.

Yes, technically speaking, it's a glorified RSS feed. But due to the presentation and the way people use it, it's more than that.

Check out, for example, the Dell Outlet. http://twitter.com/DellOutlet Dell made $6.5 million from this Twitter account. Why? Because they actually engage in discussions with their customers. It's an incredibly powerful way to reach people that are buying your stuff. Part of the reason I'm still a Verizon customer is because I got frustrated with their service, complained on Twitter, and within 15 minutes, I got an @reply and then a dm from a rep, who got actual real CSRs to call me, and my stuff got fixed.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#14

Post by stilist » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:29 PM UTC

jcromartie wrote: post #11

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed, or are you participating in conversation?

> Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed Isn't that what it is? (totally serious here)

You’re forgetting the IM half.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#15

Post by steveklabnik » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:30 PM UTC

brandnewlow wrote: post #12

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed, or are you participating in conversation?

Either way, we've done exactly the same thing throughout the whole period.

Yes, but it's possible that people got bored and unsubscribed. I have no real idea, just throwing some ideas out there.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#16

Post by fjabre » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:31 PM UTC

Why do these numbers seem low..? I checked FB only to find that their monthly uniques were 130 million.. Weren't they recently claiming 350 million active users?

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#17

Post by dasil003 » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:41 PM UTC

On the one hand, I don't think Twitter numbers can be considered stable at all, because it's not something that people get right away. They also haven't really defined themselves as a company, and the product has so many directions it could go in, any of which could change the growth profile.

But on the other hand, Twitter is something that many people will always find vapid and narcissistic. Facebook has been trying to push people in this direction as well, but they have a compelling feature set that draws people in even if that have to block half of their loud-mouthed friends. Twitter has lots of potential (via their API if nothing else), but even if they can build up their third-party ecosystem to rival Facebook, I don't think you can't capture a mass market with a hodgepodge of tools that user's have to discover and set up for themselves.

Frankly I think Evan and Biz should have sold in the spring.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#18

Post by dasil003 » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:44 PM UTC

fjabre wrote: post #16

Why do these numbers seem low..? I checked FB only to find that their monthly uniques were 130 million.. Weren't they recently claiming 350 million active users?

compete.com gives us 50,000 uniques even though we have 600,000 in Google Analytics. Their numbers are just universally low as far as I know.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#19

Post by jfno67 » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:44 PM UTC

fjabre wrote: post #16

Why do these numbers seem low..? I checked FB only to find that their monthly uniques were 130 million.. Weren't they recently claiming 350 million active users?

If I remember right, Compete is only reporting user in the U.S. which explain the low numbers.

Re: Is Twitter saturated?

#20

Post by brandnewlow » Fri, Dec 11, 2009, 4:59 PM UTC

steveklabnik wrote: post #15

brandnewlow wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, we've done exactly the same thing throughout the whole period.

Yes, but it's possible that people got bored and unsubscribed. I have no real idea, just throwing some ideas out there.

We've gained followers over same period.