It shouldn’t come as any surprise that most people join social networks, especially such as Facebook and MySpace, because their friends are on them. While when social networking first started to emerge via Instant Messaging and chat rooms people were more open to meeting strangers, social media has, for the most part, reversed that norm.
Then, in 2006, a little bird came onto the scene and shook things up. Twitter, the micro-blogging site, was intended to serve as a platform to communicate quickly and easily with a whole network of people, and to most users at the present time, network meant “people I know and have met.” However, Twitter has now morphed to more of a life-casting and thought sharing platform, which obviously opens the doors to broadcasting to more than just friends and family. But, in turn, the people one interacts with on Twitter can become friends and part of one’s network.
So, why do only 40 percent of users continue to use Twitter after signing up? Most likely people become qwitters for the following reasons:
- Their friends and family aren’t on it and they don’t feel comfortable sharing that they ate the most amazing burrito for lunch or that they just got Fluffy shaved at the groomers with strangers.
- They don’t understand the culture, the lingo and how it works. Twitter has it’s own culture with social norms (you should follow people back, respond to people quickly and interact with the people you are following and that are following you, etc.) and language (RT means retweet, a twibe is a group on Twitter, Tweeps are people, etc.). It’s easy to learn if you spend time on the site, but most users might not have the patience.
- They’ve been on for a day or two and feel like no one is listening to them. They reply to other users tweets, but don’t get any replies. They follow people, but don’t seem to get a lot of followers. Again, it goes back to patience, it takes time to build a following, but these people may feel like they’re a social leper on the social media site.
- They have nothing to say.
So why keep Twittering? Because those 40 percent of people that stay on Twitter are truly committed to the conversation. They are looking to engage with not only people, but with brands. Not only do they want to acquire information, but they want to discover the people behind the organization and the personality and values within the organization.
And the Twitter quitters? Well, you’re better off without them.
Tags: Social Media, Social media best practices, Twitter, Twitter quitters, why people quit twitter, why people use twitter
