Wednesday, April 29, 2009

My beef with Twitter

The news that 60% of Twitter users ditch the site within their first month of membership comes as no surprise. Why? Simple: because most people are too lazy to use it.

While Facebooking or MySpacing requires little effort, Twittering requires frequent upkeep if you're going to use it the right way. Some people log into Facebook daily. Others less so. The point being that Facebook serves its purpose regardless of your frequency of use. Twitter, on the other hand, needs constant attention to work effectively.

I've read countless articles about Twitter's effectiveness as a business development tool for executives. But I keep going back to the central question of how business execs are able to effectively use Twitter while simultaneously running a business, tending to clients, working with staff, etc. Does this seem paradoxical to anyone else? Did an extra half-hour get tacked onto the workday that I don't know about? Would Twitter stand a chance in a better economy, or is it prospering today because businesspeople have too much time on their hands?
On that note, back to work...

--Aaron

Many on Twitter are quick quitters, finds study
More than 60 percent stopped using the free site a month after joining
By BELINDA GOLDSMITH, Reuters

SYDNEY - Today's Twitter users are often tomorrow's quitters, according to data that questions the long-term success of the latest social networking sensation used by celebrities from Oprah Winfrey to Britney Spears.

Data from Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, found that more than 60 percent of Twitter users stopped using the free social networking site a month after joining

"Twitter's audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month's users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent," David Martin, Nielsen Online's vice president of primary research, said in a statement.

"For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention."

San Francisco-based Twitter was created three years ago as an Internet-based service that could allow people to follow the 140-character messages or "tweets" of friends and celebrities which could be sent to computer screens or mobile devices.

But it has enjoyed a recent explosion in popularity on the back of celebrities such as actor Ashton Kutcher and U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey singing its praises and sending out "tweets" which can alert readers to breaking news or the sender's sometimes mundane activities.
President Barack Obama used Twitter during last year's campaign and other prominent celebrities on Twitter include basketballer Shaquille O'Neal and singers Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus.

Twitter, as a private company, does not disclose the number of its users but according to Nielsen Online, Twitter's website had more than 7 million unique visitors in February this year compared to 475,000 in February a year ago.

But Martin said a retention rate of 40 percent will limit a site's growth to a 10 percent reach figure over the longer term.

"There simply aren't enough new users to make up for defecting ones after a certain point," he said in a statement.

Martin said Facebook and MySpace, the more established social network sites, enjoyed retention rates that were twice as high and those rates only rose when they went through their explosive growth phases.

Both currently have retention rates of about 70 percent with Facebook having about 200 million users.

"Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty," said Martin.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A downside to dialogue? Seriously?

For comparative shoppers, online reviews are a blessing. They're free, they're plentiful, and in most cases, they're brutally honest. For my part, I rarely make an online purchase, book a hotel room, or choose a seat on a flight before running point with CNET.com, TripAdvisor.com, or SeatGuru.com.

Despite the usefulness of these sites, I've long been frustrated by the bias inherent in a one-sided forum for debate. And on the Internet of all places?

It's nice to see Yelp.com take the lead in giving businesses a voice; one of the best things about the Internet community is its ability (willingness?) to self-correct. I hope other sites follow suit. Online back-and-forths could prove to be a powerful marketing tool for businesses.

--Aaron



Yelp lets business owners talk back. Dialogue or argument?
The popular online consumer-review website will allow business owners to respond to negative reviews.

By MICHAEL B. FARRELL
San Francisco


They’ve criticized his coffee – it’s “burnt” – and condemned his chai tea – “downright terrible.”

Like many of the small businesses critiqued on Yelp, the increasingly popular online review site, Aziz Benarafa’s Progressive Grounds Coffee Shop has been voiceless in the face of cutting comments from a few unhappy customers.

But soon Mr. Benarafa, and other small-business owners reviewed on the site, will be given a chance to defend themselves against the often harsh criticism from Yelpers, as the cadre of influential reviewers are called.

The move to let businesses respond to review has been met with both applause – mostly from businesses – and some hesitation from loyal Yelpers who fear the consumer site will lose its bite.
More broadly, this could mean that business getting its say is the way of the future for websites that began as grassroots resources for consumers.

“All along we’ve been thinking about the business end because it’s an obvious part of this discussion,” says Stephanie Ichinose, Yelp’s spokeswoman. “We kept hearing that businesses wanted a public way to respond to reviews.”

But, she says, “We are very careful because it could become a shouting match.”

Yelp set out in October 2004 to become the destination for consumers to hear from other consumers about local businesses. As it grew in popularity and influence – about 20 million visitors look up businesses monthly – some scorned businesses began to complain. They wanted a chance to respond to negative reviews or correct the record.

On Thursday, Yelp sent a message to its most active reviewers, the Yelp Elite, about the move to give business owners a more prominent voice on the site. Yelp wanted feedback from loyal reviewers before the plan goes live, says Ms. Ichinose. She expects the new feature to be active in about a week.

Businesses have been able to privately e-mail reviewers, post basic information about themselves, and to even sponsor their Yelp review pages. Yelp insists that when a business becomes a sponsor, it’s still at risk of having bad reviews show up on the site.

Will other popular user-generated sites follow? Rob Enderle, a Silicon Valley technology analyst, doesn’t think so. “You want accuracy, you want a vetting process,” he says, pointing out that rival businesses sometimes plant negative comments. But, he adds, “You don’t necessarily want to see an argument.”

He worries that while Yelp’s move might be attractive to vendors, it might turn off users who are just looking for frank reviews.

“It sounds like a good idea,” he says, but in the end it may look like either the reviewer or the business owner is wrong. That can be confusing for the user, and would only make the site, Yelp in this case, lose some credibility, he says.

As for Benarafa, he’s happy to have the chance to defend his San Francisco coffee shop. Progressive Grounds Coffee Shop has done fairly well by Yelp standards – with 104 reviews it has garnered a 3.5 out of 5 star rating.

“Yeah, I’ll do it,” he says. “Why not? It just takes a few minutes and if I see something I don’t like, I’ll respond.”