Dear Twitter, when we fell in love in March 2009, you were the cutest and the best bird I had ever met. I remember when we used to sit in bed together during those long, cold, winter nights. Now I just feel like I don’t know you anymore.

You never let me speak my mind with your 140-character limit, and you have become overweight with too many part time users. I don’t feel like you talk to me enough by sharing what I tweet on you, and you hardly share me with your friends like you used to.

Other, much cuter birds, have taken my attention away from you like Instagram with her sexy filtered pictures, flawless skin, and luscious colors. I started cheating on you with Instagram and then I found myself hooking up with her friends Snapchat and Periscope.

To my surprise, I even find myself starting to look again at older more mature birds like Facebook because of the way you make me feel. You haven’t aged as gracefully as others with your ever increasing wrinkles, and your inner beauty just doesn’t shine through like the bird I once knew.

Every time I tell you that you need a makeover, you just ignore me with your short bites of content and your robotic auto replies. So Twitter, I can’t do this anymore. I am breaking up with you. I’ll miss you Twitter but the time has come for me to see other people. Tim.

Below are the eight reasons why I broke up with Twitter:

1. Automated posts

One of the challenges Twitter is having is that social media is making a move towards real-time. I’m not saying that Twitter is the only platform that has automated posts, but it’s one of the worst offenders.

There are so many Twitter accounts that have more than three tweets a day, and you just know that they were scheduled a long way in advance. Many of these same tweets are often rehashed content from the user’s account that has been posted before on Twitter.

Tweets just feel too spammy these days and like a robot is writing them, and then repeating them over and over. It’s this reason more than any other that I believe Twitter is dying a slow death. Their financial position at times seems to reflect the same sentiment.

2. Followers are meaningless

Twitter, more than any other social platform, has the ability to add followers, which I now believe, are virtually meaningless. There are so many automated follower software tools that you can use to fake the number of followers you really have.

It’s not about the number of followers you have; I believe it’s about the amount of engagement you have with your followers that is the real power.

3. Useless automated replies

Not only are followers meaningless, but when you connect with someone new Twitter allows users to have spammy auto replies. These automated replies usually have some form of self-promotion or link to a product that someone wants you to buy.

This whole function just feels outdated and adds to the argument that Twitter is not relevant anymore and is dying a slow death.

4. Not enough characters

Fundamentally, one of the restrictions of Twitter is the number of characters you can type. In the beginning, it was cool, but over time, it has just become annoying because you can’t say anything of any substance.

This is why tweets are not memorable, which in turn, makes a lot of what the platform does forgettable. Maybe I am wrong on this one, but I get this feedback from people on social media all the time.

5. Engagement is at an all time low

I am lucky enough to be connected with quite a few mega influencers who have followers in the hundreds of thousands. I don’t tell you this to brag; I mention it because it allows me to ask the successful people on Twitter their thoughts of the current state of play.

Every single one of them says that their engagement with their fans on Twitter is at an all time low, and they just don’t get the same level of retweets and favoured tweets as they use too.

Many are moving to other social media outlets or automating their accounts entirely so they can concentrate on other platforms.

6. Too much spam

As I have highlighted in the previous points, and I want to highlight again, Twitter just has too much spam nowadays. Many of the posts are not about adding value but are more focused towards shameless self-promotion.

It seems like Twitter has become the one platform that has ignored Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice from his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. For those who haven’t read it, it’s a simple concept; deliver three tweets of value (the jabs) and then one tweet (the right hook) with an ask such as “subscribe to my mailing list.”

7. Uninspiring interface

Over time Twitters, interface hasn’t changed a lot. Beginners still find the Twitter concept hard to understand, and the interface is nothing too exciting, What Twitter needs in its interface is some cool new features.

Without any updates, I fear that Twitter will continue to go the same way as the Apple iPhone. It will continue to lose its relevance and what made it an awesome platform in the first place.

8. Too many hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to find content on social media. Another reason why I believe Twitter is dying a slow death is that hashtags have become overused on the platform. When you write one sentence and have three or more hashtags all promoting a brand or product, it just doesn’t feel right.

***Final Thought***

To be clear, this post is really my personal opinion of Twitter, and I’d like to think I have some credibility around its use. The purpose of this post is not to hate on Twitter but to point out some improvements so that maybe the masses will lobby for change.

While I think Twitter is dying there are still some great social media platforms that will achieve some similar results. An example of one is LinkedIn, which has gone from a site about people’s resumes, to a real, multifaceted social media platform.

I feel that LinkedIn engagement is at an all-time high, and the “Influencer Pages” are what Twitter should have done. Even though Twitter is becoming less attractive, I still find that following super-human influencers with millions of followers – like Tony Robbins and Richard Branson – is 100% worth my time.

Are you going to break up with Twitter? What’s your current favourite social media platform and why? Let me know in the comments section below or on my website timdenning.net and my Facebook.