Are you using Twitter today? Do you have a personal profile or have you created a “Brand Profile” for your business? What’s next for businesses now that the hype for Twitter is wearing off? (part 1 of 3)
Is Twitter in trouble?
In 2008 Twitter’s annual growth rate was 752%. At the beginning of March 2009, Mashable reported it at 1,382%. With the exception of a few recent jumps following key world events (the revolt in Iran) and celebrity personalities jumping on the band wagon (Oprah), the pace of new Twitter users which was climbing consistently each month has reduced since August. Despite this, this micoblogging social media tool is on pace to break 100 million users as it enters the New Year. In fact the question is whether any other public timeline, microblogging platform will succeed in the US.
Business Insider -Twitter through the eyes of Silicon Alley Insider
Should investors be concerned?
Yes and no. A slowdown in growth had to come at some point, and adding 23 million users in the past three months still seems impressive. Doesn’t it? Here’s the real reality check for Twitter: the hype’s wearing off.
The trough of disillusionment
Twitter is moving into the trough of disillusionment following its initial hype period. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Early adopters have had successes and failures and are educating others on best practices and pitfalls.
More and more social media case studies examples are popping up on the Internet. Peter Kim has 324 on his social media business list with continual updates with discussion of strategy and success. These tend to be in the B2C realm, but early adopter B2B companies are talking about how it has worked or not for them. Now that users have lowered some of their unrealistic expectations, Twitter can move to its next growth phase where it’s used more efficiently and effectively with a greater return on investment.
Gartner Hype Chart
The Hype Chart
Gartner analysts find a common pattern for many new technologies: the stages are
- technology triggers
- peak of expectations
- the trough of disillusionment
- stage of enlightenment
- plateau of productivity
Another reality check
Gartner predicts more competition for Twitter. By 2011, enterprise microblogging will be a standard feature of 80 percent of social software platforms on the market. While other consumer microblogging platforms exist (such as Plurk, Yammer, Jaiku, and Identi.ca), Twitter is the most popular. What effects will entrants like LinkedIn, who just recently added a feature that lets your status update link to twitter and vice versa, have on Twitter’s usage?
I believe that one of the other microblogging platforms will rise to the top for internal Enterprise organizations. Salesforce.com might be the one. It has recently introducted, Chatter. This is a new product that bundles a variety of features, profiles, real-time feeds, groups and alerts while integrating with Google, Twitter and Facebook. I don’t agree with those that say this makes it a Social CRM, but it may help some larger companies in the enterprise world and maybe even some mid-sized businesses decide that they can deal with social media if they use this tool.
Is your company using Twitter?
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Related posts:
- Reality Check for Twitter and Business Use – Part 3
- Reality check for Twitter and Business Use – Part 2
- Infographic on my Twitter Behavoir | Social Business and Relationships
- Why I am Thankful for Social Media – Business Relationships Part 3
- Surviving in business by developing social business relationships
[...] look at the latest numbers, consider my Twitter for Business post in January that talked about Gartner and the Trough of Dillusionment coming with social [...]