Comments on: The Twitter Retention Problem: Oprah, Aloha and Your Community

By: What’s next on the horizon? « Life is what you make it

What’s next on the horizon? « Life is what you make it — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:43:59 +0000

[...] http://www.gravit8.com/2009/04/the-twitter-retention-problem-oprah-aloha-and-your-community/ [...]

By: Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:41:49 +0000

Thanks Rachel for offering two very different experiences. I know you're someone who does know their way around Twitter so your most recent bewildering experience ought to be a “aha moment” for the folks at Twitter. Getting people in the door doesn't matter if they just as quickly exit out the rear. And we've likely seen a lot of communities with strong potential for success go down in flames because they never got beyond the acquisition stage.

Appreciate your thoughts.

By: Rachel Happe

Rachel Happe — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:02:26 +0000

Hi Chris – I had an instructive experience in setting up a new Twitter account for my new business. I've been on Twitter personally for a couple of years and it was a very cozy, friendly place when I joined. One of those reasons is because I had friends there already and they introduced me around (and they were still really excited about it which helped). Second, I got to a couple of AHa moments very quickly – meet a significant portion of the people I cared about staying in touch with there and had communications breakthroughs.

Signing up recently – and I know Twitter well – seemed a lot more bewildering. Part of that was there are far more people to find and follow…and more and more tools that work in just slightly different ways. Part of that was the enormous numbers of spam bots that attack new accounts and were a little difficult even for me to sort out. If I were a slightly skeptical new user, that would turn me off completely.

Another take on this by @tmcenroe – Don't Be Like Oprah – http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2009/04/30/T...

Good topic!