Jessica L. Owens

I’ve read articles over the past year concerning why Twitter has been more popular with adults rather than teens. If the chart above showed ages below 18, we are sure to guess the bar would be much lower. I was reading some posts by my friends who have either recently joined Twitter or who have been on Twitter for some time, all of whom don’t have any formal marketing background. I realized how differently we “tweet” and how useless I find my friends’ tweets. I scan them in just a few seconds where other “Twitter friends” or people of whom I met on Twitter, who usually have a marketing background, are much more informative about whatever it is that they’re writing.

Believe it or not, nobody really cares what you’re doing right this second, or even later tonight, especially if that activity is routine for you.

Many of my friends post on Facebook personal things like what they’re doing tonight. On Facebook, comments are allowed to be posted right to the original text. Even something that is useless could be posted and might be interesting after a few comments. It’s not easy to follow comments between users on Twitter, therefore, nobody really cares what you’re doing unless it’s something really out of the ordinary.. and in that case, you should probably include a link for more information!

To be useful/informative on Twitter, include a link.

My non-marketing friends on Twitter almost NEVER share a link. This is the #2 reason why their posts are useless. If what they say is interesting, where did they find it? Usually there is not enough characters left to say “I found this on…” but a Tinyurl would be great. A quick blurb, and here is some more information.

This is exactly why young people don’t Tweet.

Young people were raised on AIM, Facebook, then Twitter. We evolved into a different type of web user, where older Net users probably learned each application by reading articles on why this is good to use for personal (and business).  Girls on AIM posted quotes or song lyrics to their profile or away messages. Some still do this on Facebook. I’ve recently seen this on Twitter and it just doesn’t work.

Guys liked to post sports scores or funny jokes to AIM. This has evolved into Facebook in the form of different blog applications and groups like FML and Texts From Last Night. On Twitter, it sometimes works but there is no easy way to add the link. Good marketers know this. But the average Twitter user isn’t a marketer. Oh wait. Yes it is, that’s why #Twitterfail continues and non-marketers and young people have stayed away.

Why do you go to Twitter? Are you a marketer looking to reach your audience? Are you a general user getting in touch with friends? Maybe you only follow celebrities to see what they’re doing right now. Perhaps you’re curious about what others are talking about?

Do you communicate? Is your target market communicating back to you? Is your effort even working?

An outstanding majority of users on Twitter don’t post a single post. Twitter is getting all sorts of press on their growth rates but their growth rates are only useful if the growth is active users. It’s time to think about whether or not all of this time on Twitter is worth the effort.

I don’t mean to make it sound like all I do or know is how Twitter’s usefulness will be short lived, but I found more evidence to back up my position and it already look like others are feeling the same as I do.

If Internet users think it’s completely useless and advertisers think it’s the greatest thing on the planet, there is a problem. Just backing up my position… once again.