All of the talk around Klout Twitter influence is missing the point.
When Twitter was in its infancy in 2006/7, it was a heady platform. One could ask questions and get answers in record time. Don’t know what kind of laptop is best? Ask “Twitter” or your friends on Twitter, anyway.
Today, if you ask a question, it is likely to get ReTweeted, but less likely to get answered. It has increasingly become a broadcast channel vs. a relational one. A Pew study late last year underscored this problem. It showed that just under 1/2 of users were not checking the Twitter status of other people.
In a BlogHer Study released this week, they asked a sample of the U.S. population how they used various platforms. As you can see by the slide below, they preferred blogs and Facebook in bigger percentages in every category. Even with Twitter having much fewer users, this slide shows the uphill battle for the service that has dazzled celebrities and is the jewel of online influencers.
BlogHer cofounder Elisa Camhort Page commented on the problem with Twitter in a series of two Tweets that I have put together (and added all the letters, the benefit of the long form blog):
There's big article in Fortune about what I've been saying for two years now: Twitter still niche as far as *active* use because of 2 things:
- Doesn't serve compelling purpose and
- Doesn't help regular people figure out how to use it well…they suggest following celebs!
So Why Is It So Popular?
With so many challenges, why is Twitter a media marketing and “influencer’ darling?
It’s probably the ease of access and the ability for marketers, and anyone else, to bend the service to almost any purpose. It is the democratized social network.
It also allows a hierarchical approach. Who has the most followers? Who is trending? Who or what is the flavor of the day? @charliesheen anyone? It’s built-in influence gaming makes it a powerful driver for those who have had success with the service and its potential reach makes it attractive to brands and marketers as well.
Facebook is a different story, it is much more controlled by both Facebook itself and by the users as well. The “Fortune Magazine” article mentioned by Elisa, the “Trouble @ Twitter,” points out:
“This is one area in which [Twitter] has the upper hand over Facebook. Facebook communications are private unless a user chooses to make them public; all tweets are public, which gives marketers a potentially richer pool of content for targeted ads.”
One can protect their tweets, but the vast majority of people and organizations don’t.
So, how are you using Twitter these days? When do you turn to it over Facebook? On the other side, how are you using Facebook and Blogs? How does the slide apply to you?
While RTs are welcome, please comment, I really want to know.
