Twitter Founder at TED Charts Adoption & Gestation Milestones

Scott Loring, a friend and colleague of mine, sent me a link this week to Evan Williams’ (the Founder of Blogger.com and Twitter.com) TED talk from last month. In the 8-minute presentation Evan expounds on the ways in which the twitter universe helped mold the kind of content created on twitter and the milestones that launched it into the escalation phase. If you have eight minutes, watch the presentation.

I’ve taken some time to now chart his milestones into Tippingpoint’s New Media Life Cycle to give you some context for these event’s effect on the distribution platform.

Tippingpoint Labs New Life Cycle Analysis Channel: Twitter

What’s interesting to me is that Twitter is still asking the same question of its new users: “What are you doing?” Although that is the question Evan asked four years ago, the content actually distributed on Twitter has evolved a huge amount, they haven’t made much effort to help users understand how to create and distribute valuable content.

As you watch Evan’s presentation you can see the impact each of his milestone’s had on the traffic to Twitter, but you can also see how it shaped the evolution of the content created on the platform. For example, the LA Fires in late 2008 showcased how Twitter can effectively disseminate critical information to a wide audience in real time. Those involved in the fire evacuation where not interested in ‘what you are doing’ in fact they wanted to know what they should do. The evolution of the @replies functionality is similar in scope. Twitter began as a broadcast platform, but the users adapted Twitter into a two-way communication vehicle. However, they’ve not done much to understand how best to use the @Reply functionality. (As a side note, there’s nothing worse than to feel like I’m listening to only half a conversation from someone I follow. Perhaps Twitter should help us understand when to use @Reply versus Direct Message functionality.

It is clear to me that Twitter could have reduced the time it spent in the Adoption phase had they more proactively engaged in helping the core ‘adoption phase users’ understand how to create and communicate more usefully on Twitter.

The fallout effect of this phenomenon of not adjusting the distribution channel’s ‘guidelines’ for valuable content creation, is that new Twitter users are forced to slowly evolve their understanding of the platform. This makes their ability to see value in communicating via Twitter slow and arduous. As a result, you see hundreds – even thousands – of ‘experts’ trying to help users interpret the value of Twitter. Almost everyone I know that’s tried Twitter starts by tweeting useless information like “I’m eating cake… YUM!” (adding no value in my mind) and it’s sometimes hundreds of tweets later that they realize how best to take advantage of the medium.

Takeaway Message

In summary, if you’re working on distributing content on a new platform try and find out who’s adding the most value and mimic their content creation methods. Also, if you’re creating a new content distribution channel like 12Seconds.tv you should be helping your users understand what works and what doesn’t. Higher value content always pushes the distribution channel into Escalation. Without valuable content, you won’t attract an audience.

My Question To You

Do you think Twitter should re-phrase the question central to the origin of their distribution channel? If so, what should it be? The people I follow on Twitter that add the most value hardly ever answer the question: “What are you doing?” Perhaps it should be “What did you learn today, and where did you find it?”

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."