Twitter has been one of the biggest internet crazes of the past year.  Twitter was created in 2006, but its biggest growth spurt started near the end of 2008.  Although their growth is strong, the number of new visitors that Twitter retains is fairly low.  Further, in using the CB radio analogy to describe Twitter, there is a great deal of static over the air waves.

Clarifying Twitter’s Growth

The number Twitter’s unique U.S. visitors more than doubled from February to March 2009 as illustrated in this chart at TechCrunch.  However, this massive growth must be put into perspective.  The number of new Twitter subscribers that return after their first month is fairly low as described by Nielsen Wire.  Nielsen performed a subsequent study which included websites and software applications that people use to access Twitter indirectly and came up with very similar findings.

Currently, more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.

The Value of Content

Pear Analytics performed a study that categorizes a sampling of tweets.  The study found that 40.5% of tweets are pointless babble such as “I just brushed my teeth.”  Following is a summary of the Pear Analytics findings:

• 40.50% pointless babble
• 37.50% conversational
• 5.85% self promotion
• 3.75% spam
• 3.60% news
• 8.70% pass along value

Social Media Leaders Don’t Follow Their Own Advice

The social media leaders also seem to be in conflict over Twitter.  That is, they do not practice what they preach.  I have seen many reports and guidelines for using Twitter effectively.  Many of the leader’s suggestions include:

• Do not try to sell or self-promote
• Provide content to help others
• Build relationships
• Thank those who re-tweet

From personal experience, I can say that many respected social media leaders do not follow this advice.  I have never received a thank you for re-tweeting something that I thought was of value to others.  I have responded on several occasions to people asking for help or advice.  Only once did I receive a response and it was not from a social media leader.

One way some of the less scrupulous social media leaders and bloggers get around the “don’t self-promote” guideline is through the use of affiliate advertising links.  While they provide reviews and how-to articles, quite often the products referenced provide income to the writer if the link is clicked and a purchase is made.  In my opinion, this is self-promotion through deception.  The deception is in giving the impression of providing information as a service to the reader, only to embed links that provide income in return.  The whole purpose of this type of article is to generate revenue, not to help readers.  There is no problem if it is clearly disclosed that the post is a paid review or how-to article.  Unfortunately, most writers do not make that disclosure.  An example tweet would read something like this:

“Check out my review of this awesome new xyz product.  www.xyz_product.com”

The review ends up being very favorable for xyz product with a convenient link to visit the product’s website.  A closer look at the link to the website might reveal the writer’s affiliate id for receiving payment.  Affiliate advertising is a very respectable form of advertising and income generation provided it is done with full disclosure.

To Follow or Not

Another controversial Twitter topic is whether to follow those who follow you.  There are those who believe it is discourteous to not follow someone who follows you.  However, if the whole purpose of Twitter is to make the experience unique and personal by following those who are relevant to your interests, why would you follow someone just because they followed you?  It contaminates your Twitter feed with information that is of no interest to you.  Conversely, where is the value in having a person follow you that isn’t interested in your tweets and probably doesn’t even read them?

Answer Poll or Comment

Let everyone know how you use Twitter by either voting in the poll below or leaving a comment describing your experiences.

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