Twitter needs to educate!
Over at Direct Marketing Observations (a most excellent and upcoming blog by a fellow Floridian), Marc Meyer gives his two cents why the new user attrition rate at twitter is so high.
People are confused and understandably so.
The cryptic language of RT, #hashtag, and @user is probably pretty intimidating for novice users, especially those without a Twitter veteran mentor to lean upon. I’m pretty sure followfriday has more than a few new users running for the hills.
Twitter needs to educate their users. In fact, they are obligated to provide them with a guided tour of how to Twitter.
A few items that might need explaining-
* What RT, #hashtag, @user syntax means
* How to use Twitter search to find people on Twitter
* Direct messages
* Trending topics
BTW, this should be provided as a video or series of video tutorials.
Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 03, 2009
Comments
So true. Twitter is really depending on the mavens who will take the time to set up and teach new users. But then at the same time, that might be a good position for them - a slower growth with users who have a built in support system, versus huge, unmanaged growth of the unwashed masses.
Posted by Art Wilbur on 06/04/2009 09:46 AM
You are so correct - YT is a game changer and will continue to lead. Now that it’s positioned as the centerpiece of Google’s Social Networking strategy it will dominate even more. FB better watch out cause the big bully is about to eat its lunch!
Posted by Jeremy on 06/04/2009 02:01 PM
Touche’. And they need to start with their homepage… “what are you doing?“ isn’t the end, it’s a means to an end (the beginning of relationship).
Roger
@1080Group
Posted by Roger Courville on 06/07/2009 08:55 AM
Yup, couldn’t agree more. More people would use Linux as well, for much the same reasons, if they knew wtf a command line is.
Posted by Peter Blanchard on 06/04/2009 06:33 AM