5 Changes Twitter should consider – Part 1
Below, I present some changes that In my opinion would enhance the user experience and take Twitter to another level. I know any or all of these changes could be risky as Twitter has had no problems growing in its original state, but it does seem the growth has slowed and user retention seems to be an ongoing issue. In my humble opinion, the platform could be greatly improved.
Yes, I realize that some of these changes are currently available in third party clients, but as for me and many other users (especially new users), Twitter.com is the place we use to access Twitter the most.
I know some of these changes I propose may be not in line with Twitter’s vision, but I definitely think they would grow and retain their userbase if implemented – which is in line with the goal of Twitter growing and becoming a major player in digital media.
If Twitter’s ultimate goal is to be a global information network, then I think some of these changes will aid in that goal as well by attracting and retaining more users to fully realize their vision of being “the” global information network.
Twitter has now hired over 150 employees and is looking to double its workforce . I suspect some big changes are coming soon, so if you like the ideas presented below please ReTweet this post and maybe someone will take notice.
So here are 5 changes that I think Twitter should consider:
Chat
Take connecting on Twitter a step further.
One of the main criticisms for most people is that Twitter’s platform limits the ability to truly connect with people on a more intimate level. Think about it for a minute and I’m sure you have some Twitter friends that you know well and like, but really don’t know at all. How nice would it be to be able to take the conversation to a whole new level beyond a daily tweet here or there.
I know you’re probably thinking that it would be hard to implement with the number of friends you have and might become overwhelming, but Twitter could limit the service to invitation only – where someone would have to invite you or has to be invited to be able to chat, just like Gmail does.
To take it a step further, they could limit it to 50 new connections a month, which would accomplish two things. Number one, it would make it more sincere if someone accepted your invitation or vice versa. Number two it could provide an excuse or reasoning to offer if someone was disappointed you did not accept his/her chat request.
This should not be just any regular chat, but a chat system similar to Gmail’s with voice and video capabilities. Chat would provide an additional way to make deeper connections and enhance user experience.
Link posting limits.
Tired of seeing 1 million links in your home stream?
80% of the tweets that come across my home screen are links. I can remember when the ratio was the opposite and people used Twitter to communicate. It seems anymore that everyone wants to share something or a spammer. This is where limits could be nice. This could be accomplished in a few different ways.
A set limit - 15 links a day and you’re done, or it could be broken down by hour, where you can only post 5 links an hour with a cap of 15 daily. Spammers would hate this as it would force them to open more accounts to reach there same level of link penetration.
Ratio of links to other tweets – Example 1 link to every 3 other tweets. This would force those hellbent on sharing every top 20 list they can find to actually converse with people and respond or engage with those that follow them and interact with them.
Home Screen Options
This would take lists to the next level.
Can you imagine having the ability to determine what you see when you click the “home” screen link? How nice would it be to have the option to see your favorite list? How nice would it be to be able to set a default “home” screen option of the content that appeared there?
The list feature is a great one, but it would be really useful if you could set a certain list as a default to display when you click your home button.
Be honest with yourself, how often do you check your lists? If you’re like me – not enough, and this change would make seeing my favorite tweeters’ tweets an easy one.
I remember when I had a few thousand friends and I could actually pay attention to the home screen. I used to sit there and hit refresh every minute or so and enjoy seeing what my friends were up to. I would jump in and out of conversations and find some great things to retweet.
Photos
A picture is worth 860 more words than a tweet.
This really needs no explanation, but Twitter should implement the ability to add a photo section to your profile.
Photos are probably the most viewed medium on Facebook, and probably where people spend the most time as well. Photos give you the ability to share your life beyond 140 characters. I love sharing photos, but would also love it if people could come to my profile and check my photos without having to search for a Twitpic link.
Speaking of Twitpic – this and many other apps are a few of the obstacles that Twitter faces. The developer community has created some amazing add-ons or features that have made Twitter what it is, and by implementing a change like this they risk pissing off the developer community. Also some developers are crushing it and a change like this could affect their livelihoods – so a fair solution would be to buy out Twitpic. In my opinion, failure to implement enhancements like this it is hurting Twitter & its users more than it is helping them.
Advertising
Targeted advertising based on real conversations.
I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but get over it! Twitter needs to make money and I’m guessing the recent search deals will only go so far. This could be achieved in an unobtrusive manner that would not harm the user experience. If you own a business, think about how exciting it could be to be able to have your ad displayed based on keywords in a user’s stream.
Twitter could really step their game up and become a player in the ad space. I know my clients would be thrilled at the prospect of targeting users based on what they are tweeting about.
Think about it. You tweet that you are hungry for pizza, and a local pizza place ad pops up with a coupon for mentioning you saw the ad on Twitter. You mention to a friend that you need to get an oil change, a haircut, new car insurance, etc., etc. The possibilities are limitless and could be an exciting platform for advertisers.
I drew several comparisons to Facebook in this post for good reason. I think Facebook does an incredible job at rolling out changes and making the user experience a more user-friendly one.
It’s obvious Facebook is doing a great job when you look at time spent on the site. According to Alexa, Facebook users spend almost 3x as much time on the site when compared to Twitter.
There are several reasons beyond these changes that can’t be ignored that lend to Facebook’s numbers, but nonetheless I think these changes could help bridge the gap and drastically improve the user experience.
These are just a few modifications I see that could drastically improve user experience, make Twitter more profitable, more fun and make it a platform that is here to stay and compete with Facebook from a user experience standpoint.
I think these changes would drastically improve the platform we love called Twitter. What do you think?
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice Read… Waiting for Part 2
My Fav Portion: “Targeted advertising based on real conversations.”
Geo-Targeted Advertising should be considered for sure
By @ritwik1st
Hey Sean,
These changes would really improve twitter as a platform in my opinion. Revenue is the key to business growth and Twitter cant last forever running off of VC funding.
I think twitter needs to become more mainstream as well. I mean, there are a lot of our friends on twitter, but as I branch out into new circles, I still find that people dont understand the concept and that these changes would help people be able to understand the simplicity and power of the platform!
Great post and I’m looking forward to your other posts coming up soon!
Matt
“conversating”?
Great post, and some interesting ideas. I’m not sure that having the ability to chat would be in line with Twitters unique selling proposition – which is microblogging. I do agree that link limitations and the ability to share images would be useful. I like the idea of the homescreen, but realistically, not many people actually use twitter.com to manage their twitter.
I wish Twitter considers these changes, they are very meaningful. It’s really important for Twitter to add on the photo section, as you suggested, and of course, the chat section too. Good job Sean!
Can we have a blanket ban on any scams and porn. Here’s my idea: We spot something that looks like a scam, we report it and, once that account has, say, 5 reports for a user, that account is instantly suspended until Twitter looks into it.
Another idea; Can Twitter put a block or limit on how many posts can come from an auto-feeder without the user actually logging into Twitter. Forcing users to act like real humans once in a while?
Oh, and another: Can the linking to the same domain as listed in the user’s profile be limited to once per day (or none at all). I suppose that wouldn’t work really with all the URL shorteners etc.,
Ok. So the last one was a stupid idea but can we have the other 2 please?
Sean great post, definitely like the targeted advertising, really like how you had examples of these, whatd you do use photoshop? yupppp
cheers bud
rj
Your suggestion about links is ridiculous.
Did you ever hear of the unfollow button? If you don’t like people sending you a lot of links, why don’t you unfollow them, rather than try to tell people how many links they should send?
If you limit self advertising, and made people actually have dialogue, Well there goes Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian just to name two off the top of my head along with a few blogger’s who RT everything on twitter. I have had to UN-follow quite a few for this. I like these Ideas you have, it would move twitter to real people with real conversation.
Link limits never. The chat version is already called Plurk.
@SeanMalarkey wouldn’t this basically make twitter facebook sans photos and applications?
ps The Sharing is Sexy! thing is very well designed.
Your thoughts on including chat into Twitter is great. It could be video conferencing…or something like skype. If it had that and some contact management capabilities, and priced conversations like IN emails at LinkedIn,…then I would have already been using it much more differently. Right now I use Twitter to mainly broadcast. This would be much better…
Link Posting Limits: “Spammers would hate this as it would force them to open more accounts to reach there same level of link penetration.” Many SPAMMERS already do this. Fake accounts stick out like a sore thumb to anyone other than a new Twitter user and they are so – grrr – annoying.
Loving the idea about selecting which tweets to have on the home feed.
Photos: Yep. Totally love that idea. As you said – photos are one of the key parts of Facebook and they paint a much more complete picture of “What’s Happening”.
I do and dont like the chat idea. I work at http://www.knowledgecity.com and have been managing the twitter account there and I think chat would help people who are trying to get the info they want.
tl;dr
Personally, I like using twitter a short, snappy, communication tool. However, some of the changes you describe (like implementing photos) begin to blur the distinction between Twitter and Facebook.
If I could make an improvement I’d develop a more indepth user information system, so people searching for someone who Tweets about specific topics could narrow in on those key people.
I find the current such tool about as effective as a crack head who only looks at a garbage can for trinkets; you gotta dig deep to find the real gems (like cigarette butts)
Hey guys! I think you certainly are going to enjoy Kim Kardashian’s infamous sex video.
It is at http://watchcelebsextapes.com
I think these are some good suggestions. Also I think that they need a better search engine. I love how on Facebook you can put in a few letters of the name and find people. Out of my 450 followers (and that’s not even that many) it’s sooo hard for me to find people that hardly ever talk on there. I have to search through my friends to find specific people sometimes, and that’s if I ever find them at all. I always tell my friends that twitter is sooo basic it’s ridiculous, it really wouldn’t hurt them to add a few things.
Didn’t like the “Link Posting Limits”… It’s will be hard to share something that is more then 140 characters long. How we will use twitlonger then? How we will get the links toy your quality posts? =) How we will share pictures on twitpic? No it’s not reasonable at all. Nice try though.
About the Chat idea… There are some pros and cons.
Pros: better connection, great way to know people a little bit closer. Faster response.
Cons: why to tweet then? (we have chat) The privacy disappears, now it’s you and your computer with chat it’s already some kind of exposure of yourself not only your ideas. And that way we will lose this adventure of seeking for replies,RTs and people of who’s tweets we really read.
The rest of ideas are great. Especially the advertising one. =)
Looking forward to read more.
@agentjobssmith on twitter.
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