Has Twitter Missed Their Monetization Boat?

I can’t quite pinpoint the day it happened. I suppose our close relationship was destined for failure. We started out so hot and heavy last summer. Twitter introduced me to so many new and interesting people and ideas. I felt so popular, each retweet further charging the passion within.

But sometime earlier this year, I started to notice things had changed. It became harder and harder to make sense of the endless stream of messages. It seemed like no one was listening, just waiting to talk. I even *gasp* started to unfollow people — knowing that I might get unfollowed in return — to unclog the once fascinating and engaging stream of insights. But it got worse! Spammers, Oprah, the cover of Time magazine… the hoards swarmed, and all of a sudden the congenial conversation became a vicious struggle to be heard. And, as in any relationship, when the communication stops and everything is one way, you know it’s time to call it quits.

Sorry Twitter. I love you, but I’m not in love with you. It’s not you, it’s me… No wait, it’s you.

Has Twitter's popularity reached its peak? (Source: Google Trends) Scale: 1.00 equals the average search traffic volume for the last 12-months. More info on Google Trends scaling

Monetization will baffle Twitter

Well, let me clarify that subheading a bit. Twitter will likely implement a monetization structure, aimed squarely at companies and brands, that offers some sort of legitimacy to their accounts and provides them with added clout on the site, including detailed search analytics. But this could be a case of too little too late. Indeed, a lot of the evidence I see suggests the micro-blogging site will experience an increase in attrition very soon.

Twitter is headed for the Monetization Phase of the Tippingpoint Labs New Media Life Cycle. It’s characterized mainly by a peaking of traffic as the early adopters move on to define “the next big thing” and as the channel’s monetization strategy begins to prove itself viable or otherwise.

I think the suggestion that micro-blogging is “blogging for regular people,” as Time put it, is flawed. But let’s just assume it’s accurate and that it’s what drew massive crowds to the site: the opportunity for everyday people, intimidated by regular web platforms, to have a forum for their thoughts. Maybe maintaining a blog was just a bit too labor intensive. As Time observes, “Maybe you’re really busy. Maybe you don’t have much to say. Or maybe you’re just lazy. Not a problem.” Hey, it’s a fair point. Ease of use — lack of it is often a big barrier to mass adoption of technology. So why the attrition?

Well, perhaps everyone’s expectation in joining Twitter was that everyone else would care. Turns out, no, Oprah’s not listening to you and isn’t really interested in chatting. The reality that everyone found is that, as with any content distribution platform, the most popular content is the best content, the content adding the most value to the followers. Idle tweets about the barista messing up your caramel macchiato and, therefore, your morning aren’t enough to win you an audience. And so I’m not really surprised to read that 10% of Twitter users are generating 90% of the content.

The takeaway

Without better content and a more engaged user base, Twitter will never reach the kind of traffic volumes that Facebook or YouTube currently enjoy. The content being generated is not of enough value to enough people.

But all is not lost for Twitter. It has proven itself to be an invaluable tool for brands to interact with their customer base and provide a more efficient route to transparency, interaction, and support. Dell claims to have made $3 million via Twitter. Twitter use is as much a part of Zappos culture as shoes are. I predict that Twitter will implement a modestly successful monetization structure that will allow these companies to get more value from their interactions on Twitter by providing search and usage analytics via some sort of premium pay account structure.

My questions to you

Have you become disillusioned with Twitter? Are you escaping to any other micro-blogging channels (Ping.fm, Laconi.ca, Identi.ca, Pownce, Plurk)? How are your experiences on these less popular sites different from Twitter?

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."