This morning I read an interesting blog post by Ben Land on Ben-Lang.com that made the argument that Twitter is Bound to Fail.
While I respect the opinion and know people who share his views on this matter, I do not agree. So rather than post a comment on his blog, I thought it would be better to take his points one by one and present a counter-point.
- Lack of Use – this is a common, narrow misconception of Twitter. Ben points to his circle of friends not using it, but Twitter itself is almost to 50M posts per day. That seems like a pretty fair amount of use to me. By the way, Facebook has approx 55M status updates per day.
- Poor Revenues – Can’t argue with this one… yet. Twitter has only recently actively pursued being profitable; common among internet startups. The plan is in place and so far seems to be moving along well. I foresee Twitter succeeding with this as they continue to entrench themselves in this space.
- Loss of Interest – While it is true that many users of Twitter fall off in the first few months of signing up, the same can be true for almost every service.
- Bots and SPAM - Your Twitter stream is what you make it. If you follow people who distribute SPAM and garbage you will fill your stream with SPAM and garbage. The same is for friends or services that send you junk text messages and emails. There are very accessible, great tools that allow you to filter the noise and get to the good content.
Competition – Facebook? That one word answer proves that Ben doesn’t understand Twitter and its place in the social media circle. They are two different platforms to perform two completely different functions. Twitter is connecting with people of like interests and staying informed with brands or organizations. It’s a place to find other places to go. Facebook is about connecting with friends and family. It’s a great way to share photos, organize events, and interact in the community. Both have their place, but neither really crosses each other’s paths.- Third Parties - You can use Twitter.com to manage your Twitter stream, but not really effectively as Ben implies. However, the third party tools mentioned like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to use BOTH Twitter and Facebook, along with LinkedIn, RSS feeds, Flickr and many other social networking systems at the same time instead of being limited to simply Facebook.
- The Next Fad – Yep. Companies come and go. Apple is feeling some pressure from Google with Android-powered phones. Yahoo used to own search. Sears used to be the largest department store. Twitter… and Facebook… will go away sometime.
- Failwhale – I went months without seeing a Failwhale before the World Cup hit. It’s tough to guess the traffic that certain events will generate. Apple always sells out of popular released devices. AT&T users are seeing poor cell coverage because their network is flooded with iPhone calls. Even Steve Jobs had a network failure showing off the new iPhone last month because too many people showed up at the conference and were using the network traffic. Popularity carries risks and can cause unanticipated issues.
- Lack of Purpose – Ask the people of Iran whose only means of communication with the outside world was Twitter if it serves any purpose. Lack of popular understanding does not make lack of purpose. For example, Netflix has “only” 13 million subscribers (4% of the US population), yet it has changed the landscape of video rentals and portable media.
- Security Issues – as a Facebook fan, Ben is really reaching for a 10th reason with security. A little over a month ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was being dragged around by the top of his hoodie for security issues in and around Facebook. More viruses are being distributed through Facebook than nearly any other platform right now. The only way to get a virus on Twitter is to click on a bad link. This is just like IM, Facebook and email. If you don’t trust the source, don’t click the link.
Now I’m not taking a personal shot at Ben for his views on Twitter. He is in the majority in not understanding the platform or having a need for it.
However, having the narrow view that since it’s not useful for him it’s going to fail is reckless and wrong. Twitter has sustained the rough first couple of years and is poised to grow in popularity and purpose.
There is room for both Facebook and Twitter in the vast social media community. I use both platforms for completely different purposes. I expect both to have continued success in the future.
Oh, and by the way Ben… I found your blog post on Twitter (@entrepreneurpro ) ;-)
Stay Bizzy!
Very interesting, so glad you decided to do this.
1. Look it up, but I’m pretty sure that 80% of it is spam.
5. Facebook is not about just friends. Are you kidding? More people use the Like button than RT button to share blog posts etc. to their network, and people network not with just friends..
6. Well for filtering tweets etc. you need 3rd party tools.
7. Almost sure that Facebook will be around 10 times longer than Twitter.
8. Well thats impressive, because many people have been seeing it every other day for the past few years.
Great controversy, really enjoyed this post.
Let’s see in a few years what’s going on. One of is going to be wrong
Glad you found it on Twitter, must be one of the few of my 10,000 followers who actually has seen a tweet of mine.
Best regards!
Good article. I must say I don’t agree with Ben even though the two of us know each other. Also FYI, it’s Mark Zuckerburg, not Matt
PS: Going to link to this post on mine.
Ben,
I can see why you like Facebook, you have a little Zuckerberg in you, both good and bad.
As stated, you are correct in saying you are in the HUGE majority of people that don’t understand Twitter. You just have to realize, and you will as you get older and more experienced, that not EVERYONE has to understand something for it to be successful. I’m pretty sure Jones Soda is perfectly happy with its small share of the soda market left after Coke and Pepsi take their huge chunk.
But since you returned with more arguments, I’ll give you my final thoughts as well.
1 – Show me where it says 80% and I’ll back off. Sounds like a number you pulled out of the air.
5 – Facebook drives more traffic on YOUR blog, and many others. Mine and a few others happen to differ.
6 – You need third party apps for lots of stuff…iTunes ring a bell? You can’t save music straight to your Ipod can you?
7 – Again, a guess.
8 – Can’t argue that you occasionally see a fail whale. Gmail has experienced outages. Facebook was up and down for several DAYS in April of this year. Cable occasionally goes off the air…
Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re going to be very successful as long as you show a little awareness about what’s going outside your little bubble. This is not a controversy. It’s a discussion… treat it as such.
And congratulations on getting to the 10,000 follower mark. That’s a tough accomplishment on Twitter.
@Marshall – typos… gotta love ‘em. Thanks!
1. http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/06/08/on-aggregate-twitter-users-produce-about-13-of-a-tweet-per-day/
5. Not for me, but for more people in general.
6. The amount for twitter is ridiculous.
7. I know, well see though.
8. The reason the Fail Whale is such a big deal, is because its so common.
How is this not controversy?
Thanks, its meaningless though, so only about 100 people actually see my tweets.
Failwhale is way too common. I don’t think it is fair to blame it on the World Cup. I have read too many articles on Mashable stating that twitter is down again and again. This is a frequent occurrence that makes twitter frustrating to use. If you do blame it on the World Cup then that simply shows a lack of preparation on twitter’s part.