Response to the Nielsen Twitter Quitter Story

The Nielsen Wire initially purported that the about 60% of Twitter users failed to stick around after the first month. Following some feedback from the Twitter community, Nielsen added ancillary websites and applications that feed into Twitter and recompiled their data. What they came up with is that their original numbers were correct. They did not see any substantial difference in their numbers. The focus of the original article points to this retention rate in comparison to MySpace and Facebook, as a basis to conclude that the low retention is an impediment, or more directly, a road block to long term growth. I had planned to comment on their blog, however, I believe the topic had been closed. So, I will respond here.

Since there are no exit polls for Twitter users I am not sure how Nielsen quantified their data. Nonetheless, compiling data is part of what they do. So, I imagine they had valid data. From all the debate back and forth on the topics, it seems that limited factors are being associated to Twitter’s dismal retention rate; which some choose not to accept or question. One of those factors is that some people are just too clueless to get it; and another is that Twitter is too difficult for some people to grasp; or a combination thereof. In other words, if you are a Twitter Quitter it is probably because you lack intelligence. That may not be the best PR approach, but who am I to say.

From what I have seen, I see other issues factoring in to the large number of Twitter Quitters. Let me point out that this is speculation; because I do not have any way to quantify the data. First and maybe foremost, if you do have an issue, Twitter simply does not provide support. Their biggest support feature is a forum. However, support from Twitter is essentially non-existent. Twitter users may complain of the same issues for months and those complaints are virtually ignored, or in some instances, they simply say the issue has been resolved. From a customer service standpoint, you simply cannot ignore customer issues and expect them to go away. Let me clarify that.. you cannot expect the issues to go away. You can expect the customers to go away. Another negative is that Twitter appears to be a breeding ground for MLM programs with some incredible claims; of which, some cannot be supported, or are clearly false, or could be the basis to get your account deleted after using some of their tools or applications. Without regulating the dissemination of this type of content, what happens is that Twitter users are inundated with hundreds of repetitive MLM-hype tweets. I imagine that some people simply get tired of it. I have also seen complaints about receiving unwanted porn. The same applies here. These two examples represent only a couple scenarios. To address some of these type of issues, there is a process to unfollow someone. You can opt to block other users. However, processes do not always work; and sometimes basic functions do not work for various users. There appears to be no fix for these issues when they arise. When these processes and functions do not work properly, Twitter fails miserably on addressing these type of customer complaints. Allowing itself to be exploited and failing to handle customer issues will only continue to contribute to high Twitter Quitter rates; consistent with your projections about the unlikelihood of Twitter’s long term sustainability.

On the flip side, I believe that if MySpace were to add a similar method of mobile messaging they would recover from their 31 point dive and blow Twitter out of the water. Facebook has already added mobile messaging. Time will tell how that impacts their growth and sustainability.

Now that I have posted this, I see that a mildly different version of this post is awaiting moderation on the Nielsen site. For some reason, my post did not appear when I submitted it. Oh well, it has not yet been reviewed and accepted yet, either.