The SocialMediaToday.com article “Twitter in a Corner- Facing Huge Challenges” is an interesting piece about Twitter’s goals to monetize and survive an uncertain future. Twitter’s baby steps into advertising and their deliberate roll out strategy are the initial focus. The piece correctly identifies Twitter’s great concern to preserve the user experience, the possible alienation of users due to the new advertising initiatives, and the ongoing need to monetize the business model.

Twitter’s Future: Abandoning the Network?

Author Robert Bacal makes three assertions that essentially outline a scenario that we do not believe to be completely true:

• “With 80% of user accounts abandoned, can Twitter afford to move away from it’s social community roots in order to monetize its operation?”

• “Can it (Twitter) hit the critical balancing point where it can maintain its user base, attract more users while using user eyeballs to generate money? It’s unlikely. There is a point where the commercial use will drive social and community users out of the space, or to competitors, and that reality, or at least possibility limits the revenue potential.“

• “At the same time, there is the issue of commercialization from third party sources who aren’t paying anything for the free advertising they get from simply dumping tweets into the stream. They damage the user experience for those who are not there to buy things, the majority of users, and they don’t drive any revenue at all for Twitter.”

Twitter’s Future: Counterpoint

• Abandonment: according to Bacal “80% of Twitter accounts are abandoned.” This is neither surprising nor alarming news because Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. If we look at the history of blogging’s attrition rates, there is a definite correlation. Simply put, blogosphere has survived and many bloggers have monetized despite attrition (abandonment) rates equal to or more than Twitter’s current rate of account abandonment.
• Commercial use: the claim that commercial use will drive away users is unfounded. In my opinion, commercial use will begin to attract more users not drive them away from Twitter. In tandem with Foursquare, Twitter will be the “offer platform” consumers will flock to in order to find the best deals on products and services.
• Choice: the thought that user experience is damaged by people or companies “dumping tweets into the stream” that either promote or advertise something is no different than the 50 years worth of television or radio advertising we have endured. We as users understand that we can ignore the tweets that promote or advertise because the network’s value outweighs the possible “littered stream.”

More Reasons Why People Will Continue to Adopt

• Research: according to a 2006 quote from Evan Williams: “What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it’s not a social network, but it’s an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.” Twitter remains one of the most vibrant and important resources for information on the internet and the fastest growing search engine with more monthly search queries than Yahoo and Bing- combined!
• Entertainment Value: Twitter has a plethora of celebrities, sports stars, business magnates, and other very interesting people and brands. It is the platform to learn about people and brands. No amount of commercialization will drive people away from the tidbits of gossip, insider information, and breaking news Twitter has to offer.