Why I Broke Up With You Twitter And Have Found Someone Else
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.
Tim, you have summed up my thought regarding Twitter. It’s platform that I joined late. I’ve never had any enjoyable interaction with friends or followers. I’ve often wondered, does anyone really see these posts. Usually on Facebook and or LinkedIn I receive feedback, so I know I’m engaging people. I might leave my Twitter account alone and focus my efforts on LinkedIn and Facebook. What do you think of periscope? Is there much happening on that platform?
Not only was this very insightful and dead on, concerning twitters issues it was extremely well written. Very engaging and entertaining.
Nice job
Thanks Rob I am glad you enjoyed my point of view around Twitter!
Couldn’t agree more. I’m still on Twitter because as an author I pretty much have to be there for my “platform” numbers, and I post at least a couple of things each day, but almost never invest the time to go through the feed or read DM messages. I know others may say I’m foolish, but I’m spending more time on Google Plus. I love the Collections feature and it’s just so much easier to connect and engage with people.
Facebook is definitely the big guy on the block, but a few months ago I gave up and deleted my fan page and now focus on engaging in groups and using my profile page. I’ve never posted “personal” information there anyway, and many of my readers post comments about my articles and books on my profile so it’s actually working out much better than my page ever did. I am certainly no expert but I do believe it’s important to remain flexible about social media and be willing to try new things rather than settle in anywhere for the long haul. Thanks!
Marquita thank you for sharing your own perspective. I have never really used Google Plus so I must give it a go. Direct messages on Twitter are mostly just auto responses and there is just too much noise. For me, in my newsfeed, I don;t want to see every followers update but there is no way to block out followers easily. I have starting using Pic feed to help with this.
Great article very interesting, to be honest I never really got into using Twitter. I found it a bit confusing and aesthetically not really appealing. As far as using it, I can`t imagine anyone being addicted to it, like say Instagram or Snap Chat. However I think it`s really good for live events like boxing or a Cup Final, you always find hilarious Tweets from people.
From a business point of view, I personally don`t think it`s that good, because there are so many other tweets coming, your audience probably won`t even see your post.
Thanks Abel for your feedback. I totally agree with your points around Twitter and lots of people, like you, have never really got it. It is great though for following mega influencers and for live events.
The reasons you stated are exactly the ones why I never entered in love with Twitter, Tim. I have been always asking myself: What’s so great about scheduling 3 tweets a day? There is so much meaningless stuff I’m not interested in, and I don’t want to be part of the people sharing these kind of stuff. Sometimes, I use it tweeting real time, and I find it helpful to enter in conversations with others.
Thanks for sharing the article in LinkedIn. Gonna check this out, as I’m not too deep into LinkedIn yet. Since the people we want to reach out to are mostly in Facebook and Instagram, we spend more time there. I believe though that interaction has become stronger in Instagram than in Facebook.
Do you use Snapchat? If yes, how is your experience? I haven’t used it so far, as I considered Snapchat to be more for teenagers and not for people I want to connect with. However, I heard Gary talking several times about it and it made me change my mind and check it out at least.
Stefanie thanks for sharing your experience. Yes I have played around with Snapchat. The main benefit of Snapchat is that it helps you build a deeper relationship with your audience. The disadvantage is that you can’t build an organic audience and have to bring over followers from platforms like Instagram – which i don’t like that much. The future is live streaming video though. I would try Snapchat out for yourself and see what you think. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for sharing your insights, Tim! Looking forward to more articles from you.
You’ve done a beautiful introduction, Tim! I’m convinced now you may very well write a review on apps, tech products or even movies, from time to time. The story, once again delivered from your experience, kept me reading, despite having some home stuff to do before my beloved job.
I believe, you may be a very good book writer, with your ability to explain things in simple way and deliver your emotions and state of mind in honest and available form. Oh, and have I mentioned already your talent for amazing intro? I think I did 🙂 I eagerly waiting for your book and subbed for your mailing list now not to miss on it. Take your time of course.
Back to the article, I just realized you simply overgrown your little bird and took everything you could from this ‘relationship’. I get what you saying by ‘have credibility to use’ and I se it is not a hate, but rather constructive and valuable feedback, which, I am convinced, smart people should take as a pro tip.
Social media took over our life so this is fully understandable we want some quality time to spend together.
Thank you for my morning motivation, it was a good pleasure! Have a good day my friend, stay well and healthy 🙂
Toño I am glad you like the intro. It’s how I really feel though…lol. Twitter was like someone I felt close to but over time it has just gone down because they have not innovated. They are starting to remind me a bit of Nokia when they were the most popular phone. I think they can still fix their issues but they need to do something.
I have written an ebook so keep an eye out for it as i hope to complete it soon and am about to get the cover done. Thank you for taking the time to read through and for your compliments 🙂