Comments on: Twitter—Jumped the Shark Already?

By: Jason Seiden

Jason Seiden — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:20:33 +0000

@Steve—agreed. Certainly, we can use other applications to provide the groupings (think Tweetdeck)… but I feel like opening a new app is more of a commitment than I want to make…

@Paul—I think those 1st 2 tweets are bots; they’re too fast and I consistently register 2 hits through bit.ly when I use that url shortener… coincidence? I think not!

@karen—I was happy to see a number of spam accounts disappear from my follower list this weekend. Alas, I doubt the spammer issue is easily solved. As long as Twitter is an open forum, there shall be spam. And then there’s the almost-spam: “get 400 followers in 4 days!”

@Tracy—Google Wave looks awesome, through I’m still a little uncertain about someone being able to track my keystrokes… and yes to holographic walls—just remember Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and don’t go burning books…

@Andre—I certainly hope it’s all about the content! But, unfortunately, I don’t think spammers get bored and go away. I think they just get better at posing as legitimate sites. Over time, I believe the noise in the system INCREASES, not decreases, unless an active filter/blocker process is applied. (Think email: we see less junk mail in our inboxes today not b/c there’s less of it, but b/c there’s so much of it that it pays to have our ISPs catch much of it at the server level.)

@Lulu—Welcome to Twitterville, and cheers right back at you!

By: Lulu

Lulu — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:59:24 +0000

Hi Jason,
I agree with your comments but I also think we are all still learning about Twitter and how to best use it for our own needs. I am new to Twitter and am continually looking for ways to organize myself in it. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts keep it up, I believe there is still alot more possible with Twitter.

Cheers!
LA

By: Ron Krit

Ron Krit — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:43:51 +0000

Great post Jason. I’ve been debating using twitter for some time and I think I need to take the plunge. I think as with anything else, it’s just another part of your marketing plan. Depending on your demographics, budget and time it’s hard to know where you get the biggest bang for your buck.

Keep blogging, twittering, FB, Podcasting…..

By: Andre

Andre — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:48:26 +0000

Very good article…there is trully lots of spams and automation…I think the issue is also related to content…whether you have it or not…or else, what could be the use for such a great broadcasting tool…like someone commented above, eventually spammers will leave…since they actually dont have anything interesting…

By: Tracy Tran

Tracy Tran — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:38:36 +0000

You make a wonderful point that the new Tweeters coming in are looking for followers. The more recent new followers already have 10,000 followers but with 50 or 100 tweets and tell us to get more followers, go to [whatever website}. I do think the people who are coming in and the creators themselves are forcing Twitter to jump the shark.

I do think Twitter and other social media sites will phase out because there will be someone who will upgrade the social media services. Google is doing that with Google Wave and you’ll never know the next innovation…video chats or even holographic communication to our homes and workplace.

By: Karen Demerly

Karen Demerly — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:21:59 +0000

I don’t think twitter has jumped the shark, but your points are valid. I’m kind of hoping the kids and spammers will finish up their testing of the waters, get bored (and make no money), and then leave, so “we” can have it to ourselves again.

Hopefully, too, twitter will evolve, and allow for mass blocking, and possibly grouping capabilities. And I guess something needs to be done about folks using a trending topic to hawk wares – it’s not actually trending if 5,000 people are hitching a ride on the topic only to tweet, “Look at my new website! #ThisUnrelatedTrendingTopic” It’s diluting the value of the actual trends, which was one of the beauties of twitter back in the day.

I hope twitter doesn’t jump the shark, because I don’t have time or desire to keep up with Facebook, and I’m not all that enamored with LinkedIn. I just want the message, and twitter’s k.i.s.s. approach to social media is still very attractive to me.

By: Paul Hebert

Paul Hebert — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:24:51 +0000

I think you may have “jumped” too soon.

I know that in today’s hyper-connected and time-compressed world we expect everything to play out quickly. Example: from the time I saw your tweet on my BB, it was re-tweeted twice before I could get up from my chair and come and post this comment. That’s pretty fast.

However, not everything happens that quickly. I see twitter like a bottle of liquid. Shake up the bottle and bubbles form and bounce around. They do that randomly and chaotically, until, after a while, they settle down and it finds its equilibrium. New ideas and new processes are a lot like that.

Today twitter is used a certain way – sometimes it works well – sometimes not so well. It will take some time to find it’s level and it’s application(s).

I liken it to the LASER when it first was “discovered.” Not a lot of applications for it at the time but over the years it came to play an amazing role in a lot of applications. Since I’ve heard that I always take a step back and try to assess the real impact over time. We’re all experiencing twitter during it’s adolescence – right after it hit it’s growth spurt and just like any teenager, it is gangly, gawky, a bit unsteady. But I believe it will steady and settle.

The key in my mind is to stay with it and look for those clues that hint at where it might end up and practice those things so when it does find it’s true calling you’re ready to implement.

By: Steve Boese

Steve Boese — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:08:37 +0000

Jason, I think you make some excellent observations on how the rapid growth of Twitter has led to a huge increase in the noise, and made it much harder to find the signal. Your point is well taken regarding the question you placed on Twitter, I know that if I did not happen to be scanning Twitter somewhere in the 1/2 hour window you actually posted the question, there is almost no way I would have ever seen it. Perhaps the evolution, or the monetization strategy of Twitter may involve more structured grouping of followers, and the ability to DM a small circle of your followers, with whom you regularly interact. Great and thought-provoking article.