Let It Go, Twitter Is Not Going To Die

For the past few weeks there’s been talk of how Twitter is dead, how Twitter is going to die, or why Twitter must die. I think Twitter is just getting started.

Chris Baskind said it eloquently in his blog, commenting on the latest Twitter fiasco (the temporary disappearance of followers and friends  — it has since then been fixed):

Whether this proves to be fatal remains to be seen. But the point is, it should be fatal. Twitter’s grotesque incompetence cannot be allowed to stand as a model for other startups: lock in your users, then treat them as you will.

Unfortunately this is very much the case with influential online communities: users will stick with it for better or worse.

The adoption of a new service is very hard for users. You have to learn how to use it, what value it offers and above all how many people are using it. But once a critical mass is on board, it’s very, very hard for them to just abandon it. There’s this good feeling about being part of it.

People follow people. Look at the other similar services: plurk and identi.ca. They might be good or even better than Twitter, but there’s just not a whole lot of people using it.

Communities start from zero. Few then become a brand. Fewer become a verb (”are you twittering?”). But the most succesful ones become an experience.

And once you feel that the community is an experience, it’s hard to let go. This is what Google is and this is what Twitter is.

So instead of announcing the death of Twitter over and over, I think we should just sit back and wait for the folks at Twitter to fix their temporary glitches. They have a pretty open communication channel with us.

Meanwhile, see you in Twitter!

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