DataTwitter: searching something meaningful for the market

The Dotmug team has already analyzed and discussed many times the “Twitter Crisis”, that ironically is now a theme able to generate trend topic and buzz. A crisis that has three main reasons:

1. The effective number of users: not the registered one, they are a lot, but the active ones. The phenomenon of “parked users”, cannot be stopped. Basically registered users but sleepy too.
2. Ability to monetize: the investors and the market want to move to a more mature phase, where the social network should finally be able to generate incomes.
3. The ADV platform: always troubled by low performances, high prices for clients and low earnings for the platform.

Basically what’s being discussed is not the ability of the social to be appealing and to attract interesting buzz. What is happening (probably for the first time in social media history), is a total detachment between users and the business model.

Twitter: something meaningful for the market

When Google was invented, Larry Page had a huge and simple problem to attract investors: find a mechanism that could generate profit. Then the page rank idea came up…and everything finally had a meaning for the market.

A year after its creation, Facebook wasn’t able to monetize, even if they had a very good funding structure and a huge user base. Users that they were able to connect and outline thanks to sensible data and info about their habits and interests. Then the “brand page” feature came (the first example of social branding) and the ADV platform linked to this…and for the market everything had a meaning.

The real problem of Twitter is the lack of that invention and jump, business speaking. With this, everything will make sense, even for the market. It’s clear that sponsored trends and sponsored tweets are not working and this situation is degenerating into strategic schizophrenia because of the management that keeps changing rapidly and because of the continuously released features, sometimes just tested. But it is known that Twitter is different, its community isn’t just looking… they propone, argue, participate… they act.

#SaveTwitter: from the New Yorker to Franz Russo

Everything started after an article on the «New Yorker», with the title “The end of Twitter”. Franz Russo published on its blog some proposals to save the social. Russo then released the post on Twitter and asked millions of users to say what they were thinking about it with the hashtag #SaveTwitter. At this point, it was chaos. #SaveTwitter gave the sensation of an immediate end of the social. Many prayers were said, ironic comments and worried ones too.

#RIPTwitter: requiem or rescue?

BuzzFeed made things worse by announcing a new algorithm to manage the timeline, not anymore in chronological order but now related to the relevance of the information given. And this is not something small, because it makes Twitter’s timeline very similar to the one Facebook has.

#miglioramotwitter: does the la community really want to change?

How much is #miglioriamotwitter a true will to change things and how much is trying to preserve things?

Users are usually intolerant when it comes to changes, think about the negative buzz generated every time Facebook changes a feature, a format, a graphic element.

Users’ immediate reactions are not something valid to consider if you want to change and evolve a product. In many cases they are negative regardless any consideration made, because changes can disorient or limit daily liturgies. To evaluate a good change, it is necessary to rely on data, beta tester and numbers on a medium/long period. We are optimist, and we trust the fact that the next announcement that the American corporation will make will focus on business strategy and market positioning.