Nielson Report

Yes, it is here to stay.  Twitter offers a new and compelling service that has quickly grown to be an Internet phenomenon.  But marketers beware — you’ll see a very different story emerge over the next couple months.  What appears to be a mass market communication machine will shrink back into a platform for the  highly connected niche.

Here’s some great data from Neilson’s Blog (link here) detailing Oprah’s Twitter usage since her show on the subject aired.  Like most users, now at a 60% bail out rate, she is quickly trailing off usage.  As the graph above shows, Twitter is bleading users at an unsustainable rate.  They need to change or they will start to shrink.

Thoughts:

• Twitter needs to tweak it’s service offering to break into the mainstream.  It needs to identify it’s core reason for being and develop tools that allow users to tap into that core service.
• I’d recommend that Twitter focus on being the ultimate real time distributor of news.  “News” defined here as any sharing of information like “Space Shuttle Lands” to “Party at My House Tonight”.   They need to develop tools that allow users to set up an interface that makes it easy to digest that news in ways that are more friendly then they have now.
• They should expand their news offering to include more professional content and separate the professional content from the amateurs.  We’ve seen celebrities attract huge followings, but what about the paparazzi?  I’m not endorsing paparazzi’s but I could envision a service where they could sell real time celebrity feeds.  Or reporters could Twit out events as they happen.
• Twitter needs to be integrated into HULU.  I want to be able to watch Lost and discuss Lost with the Lost community at the same time. I want my Twitter feed to scroll on my TV screen as I watch.
• Marketers need to define how they can use Twitter.  If at all.  Does your brand have a need for a continuous live feed?  Maybe — but make it worth it for both you and your brand.

UPDATE:  I was not aware of the Twitter TV concept when I wrote this post last weekend.  Check out this article from USA Today (LINK HERE).  It’s very close to the Paparazzi concept I outlined above — not trying to toot my horn here.  But I though the idea was way way out there when I posted it.  I’m a bit floored that it is in the “works”.