Fixing Twitter: Social Network or Social Publishing?

Twitter user problem is actually an audience problem

I love Twitter and it seems that shareholders are not as enthused. I listen to a recent Bill Simmons podcast where he interviewed Chris Sacca, one of the tech company’s most well known investors. I took a liking to Chris because he had a hustler’s mentality and where I’m from it’s a necessity to survive. I went to his VC firm’s website to see how hard it would be to get in touch with him. Why would I need to speak to him directly? Because I can help one of his biggest investments or at least one where he is heavily interested in proving people wrong. I would love a job at Twitter but some seed money and a little recognition would do as compensation.

It’s well known that Twitter has a user growth problem and the platform is plateauing. By far it’s the best broken thing I have ever used. With new ways to share content popping up everyday, Twitter is losing some crowds and getting ignored by others. They recently signed a deal with NFL to show Thursday Night Football and it is still up in the air as how they will execute the broadcast of live games. My guess it will be an upgraded Periscope feature that will allow the streaming to be seen in feed. You might have new users and you might get reactivated users. The yearly Twitter usage of these users will most likely be 16 Thursdays a year. This move is a shift and I think the social media site’s business model needs a shift. I see so many holes in the way Twitter thinks. They see people as analytic data and use that to shape the experience for those who already use it. That’s not growth, that’s customer retention.

I usually charge top dollar for this much game but I will fix Twitter. Here are the bullet points for you all that don’t like to read much:

1. Twitter Won’t Segment It’s Product

a. Twitter is Anti-Social

b. You Signed Up For A Newspaper and You Are Editor-in-Chief

2. A Publisher’s Platform

a. Twitter Channels

b. Supply Publishing Tools — Buy Blab.im and SoundCloud

c. Repackage Content for Consumption aka TwitTube or TwitCast

1. Twitter Won’t Segment Their Product

Twitter is focused on not alienating its audience but wants new users. If you ask Jim Cramer they need more old people.

“He would first go to California Institute of Technology, M.I.T and Stanford and hire three top computer scientists from each. Then he would have them sit down with various senior citizens who are inexperienced with social media and see what problems they have using it.” — Abigail Stevenson MSNBC

I’m not saying that senior citizens aren’t welcome but I think if you were to serve them Twitter it would be a much different form. Right now Twitter is competing on the social media front for people who live their lives on the internet. They are looking to get more activity so they can charge more for ads. Whose lost in the shuffle? Inactive users. I would bet big money that Twitter has inactive profiles who picked it up, put it down and went back to Facebook. They are not all old or super young Snap Chat savants. These are everyday people who don’t fit into the current core user construct. Those are customers that need retaining.

“Content creation by the user (audience) is on the decline…Most of what people do on Facebook is consume” — @Robert Rose This Old Marketing Podcast.

Twitter has a lot creators and not enough watchers. I wonder why?

a. Twitter is Anti-Social

Unlike Facebook, Twitter doesn’t emphasize the social aspect enough. It needs a native place to interact with friends and family. As of now your tweets have to compete with much more popular accounts for your friends to see them. I have to find all of my friends and make a list one by one? Bye.

The list feature is probably the best way use Twitter but it’s never stressed how useful it is. If you don’t utilize it from day one your feed gets cooked into the algorithm. Yummy huh? Twitter chefs up a feed that give you the most popular content among peers and who you follow. When you are away it uses another formula to give you a feed they think you would like. Whats wrong with this method? People also like people and not just what’s hot.

b. You Signed Up For A Newspaper and You Are Editor-in-Chief

I see why it’s hard to get people to sign up with Twitter and stay active. Once you get in, Twitter makes you work hard to get the possible experience. It will allow you to import contacts then proceed to ask you about some of your interest and point you to individual accounts that you might enjoy. This is cool for those who are really interested in building their own adventure but how time consuming is the process to make it the best? When you consider the all of the tasks that have to be done, your basically asked to be a newspaper editor. Finding the best contributors and content that serves your audience of one. You think it wouldn’t be a surprise that not everybody likes taking on a job to get the you most from something new. What happens if I wasn’t interested in becoming a publisher? There’s no place for me.

“We might secretly be publishing things to other publishers that are republishing to other publishers.”

2. A Publisher’s Platform

I could be wrong but it seems that every TV show, channel, newspaper, column, blog, magazine, musician, podcast, radio shows, radio stations, YouTube channel, writer, movie, book, app, video game, and anything else that can be published has Twitter account. We might secretly be publishing things to other publishers that are republishing to other publishers. Somehow these things keep getting shared but never make it to a general audience. So it begs a question, how much of a social network is this again? It’s a social network for publishers but doesn’t allow non publishers a space to exist in a strictly social fashion and add the broadcast element on top. It would be nice to have a native “Friends Channel” you easily swipe over to then swipe to the “Published Channel”. Twitter doesn’t recognize the core users of the platform are publishers and needs to cater a separate experience that will keep them engage while creating an experience that will allow other to sit on the sideline.

“Things happen on Facebook but news breaks on Twitter.”

a. Twitter Channels

I called it a “channel” for a reason. This is a media company. It’s the biggest curation of live published content. It’s the only social network that continues to create it’s own news that is consumed on the platform and everywhere else. Things happen on Facebook but news breaks on Twitter.

Channels is the upgraded version List. Your personal list are not going anywhere but it’s time to get brand involved in the process. Brands should be able to create channel feeds and add contributors to form a curated experience that can be followed and swipe through like a remote button. Within the channels tweets can be cumulative or broken up in micro feeds. Word only tweets, photos, vines, and longer videos such as Periscopes. Given the option users can customize the channel experience and follow individual accounts if they would like or mute those they don’t from the channel. There are so many opportunities here for revenue and a place to have media such as video curated in a TV like fashion. This feature is a building block for other ways to use Twitter. With the new UI look, I can swipe through friends conversations, to ESPN, to Fox Sports, to Food Network and I can digest content the way I would on a TV and share it directly with my friends.

“Twitter acts like a newspaper all of the time and not enough time as a radio device or television device.”

b. Supply Publishing Tools — Buy Blab.im and SoundCloud

If Twitter wants to serve its core audience, publishers, they will need tools. Not just any tools but the best tools. Blab is a gem because not only can you join a live chat within three clicks but it publishes to YouTube, let you download the video, mp3, and share 30 second clips on social media. To cater to publishers of music and podcast they should acquire Sound Cloud. Twitter will have the ability to have curated radio station type feed from publishers who use it already. Any podcast not on Sound Cloud already would fly to the nearest subscription to have it’s podcast natively played on Twitter. Theses are some great platform by their lonesome. They both utilize Twitter to carry the usage. Each have some great tech that works super easy with mobile devices. Both have a podcast element tied to them. It’s the perfect fit to bring more ways deliver content.

c. TwitTube or TwitCast

So what comes out at the other end of this process? I laid out that the signed the deal with the NFL for Thursday Night Football. With the Channel feature the game will be easy to find. They unhatched the live streaming things with Periscope but it was an ability buy. To me the purchase was short cited and it still requires you to leave Twitter to experience it instead of a true feed of live video. Fixable but a barrier. With that said combining Periscope, Vines, pre recorded uploaded videos, and now live Blabs can become a part of a sub channel for brands and could be watched in succession kinda like you know…television. Yes! Twitter acts like a newspaper all of the time and not enough time as a radio device or television device. Insert TwitTube, an app that gives you three separate experiences through Chromecast, Roku, and all smart TV thingys. Now you can experience conversations, read articles, continuous video, or continuous audio through a bigger screen. All things available and play native in the app already. Use your phone to retweet, like, reply, or quote anything viewed. Now you can load video with call to action. You can have NBC’s “The Carmichael Show” share a clip with a call to action to see more by going to Hulu for more.

If you agree with me please tweet this article to Chris Sacca as many times as possible and tell him to call. On Sacca’s Lower Case Captial website, there is a prospecting page that can be very useful for those looking to get ideas off the ground.

In the intro he gives his policy on new ideas:

“…after years of notching wins and losses in this business, we’ve realized that our best deals (1) have all come to us by way of introduction from a friend whose judgment we really trust, when 2) that friend is also investing in the company.”

I could chase networking events that will help me get closer to people I need meet to get my idea to the right people. Problem is who’s going to pay my rent? I look at low end events I want to attend and there is a decision to me made. With admission, travel, and lodging I would have to bet that I would make money immediately or be out on the street within days. While confident in my abilities to sell myself, it’s hard to convince a wife with three kids that I’ll bet our shelter on a instinct.

Later on the page:

“NDAs don’t help. Prospective investors and advisors just can’t sign them. Asking them to do so will likely grind things to a halt. Share what you feel comfortable sharing and remember that most of the value is created by the execution, not the idea itself…The URL is the pitch…Meandering paragraphs describing a notion won’t cut it.”

I’m going to test the Mr. Sacca’s concepts by getting this post carried all the way to his digital doorstep. I would love a job at Twitter but some seed money and a little recognition would do as well. If my idea get’s picked up, the links to it will get scrubbed or pointed to a press release that officially announces everything. When I get to the top, I wont forget all the little people because Twitter won’t let me.

Thanks for reading

CL Palmer