Twitter News, Tips and Commentary — The Twitter Resource

Are you active on the Twitter website? Believe it or not, you are part of a minority on the platform. Only 17% of Twitter’s 75 million users have tweeted within the last month.

While Twitter is still growing at an extremely high rate, the rate of signups has dipped in the past month (7.8 million/month to 6.2 million/month).

Computer World is reporting that in early 2007, over 70% of the registered Twitter accounts were active. Obviously, 17% is not an impressive statistic, even considering how much the website has grown over the past year.

Despite all of the inactivity reported in the news story, an interesting tidbit was shared at the end of the article: if new users stick around the website at least for a week, the odds that the user will engage more with the site increase greatly.

Obviously, these numbers should open most users’ eyes. Twitter needs to find a way to engage their users when they start up with the website from the get-go. Many people that I’ve spoken with that are not on the website “don’t get Twitter”.

What are your thoughts on these statistics? Do you have any ideas in terms of how Twitter can improve their service or increase their engagement with their users?

(Photo Credit: Robyn Gallagher)

Read the full article »

An interesting report was released yesterday by Opera Software saying that while Twitter did grow their user base across the world in 2009, they experienced a negative growth rate in the United States.

The “State of the Mobile Web” report for January 2010 reflected back on December 2009 as well as the entire past year. The report found that Facebook and Twitter indeed did grow their user bases the fastest in 2009 on a global level.

However, in the United States, Twitter experienced a negative growth rate in 2009 (users), while both Facebook and MySpace saw impressive gains. Facebook did particularly well, growing 194% in 2009.

Obviously, Twitter users located in the United States cannot be too happy with the results that are presented in the report. However, they should be encouraged with the impressive gains that Twitter made in the United Kingdom. Twitter experienced a 595% growth rate in the United Kingdom last year.

Can we really draw any conclusions from these numbers? It’s clear that Twitter is doing well in the United Kingdom and Facebook is doing well in the United States, but as other social networking sites enter the fold in 2010 and beyond, it will be interesting to see where the numbers shift. As social networking as a whole continues to expand and change our daily lives, firmer conclusions can likely be set in future years.

What are your thoughts on the report?

Thanks to TechCrunch for providing the report. A copy of the report can be accessed here.

(Photo Credit: Penn Olson)

Read the full article »

If you haven’t seen a tweet about the viral video “Pants On The Ground” lately, then you’re missing out. Days after the American Idol hopeful Larry Platt auditioned his song, his audition is still being searched like crazy on Twitter.

Platt, a 63-year-old well past the age limit of 28 for American Idol auditions, said that he was happy with the way American Idol portrayed him in the Atlanta audition episode.

The story behind the song? He started singing it spontaneously after he saw a man out on the street, with his pants slipping below his waist.

Simon Cowell’s words were encouraging at the end of Platt’s audition:

“I don’t think this will be the last we hear about you. I have a feeling about you, Larry.”

Larry’s audition, which now has more than 1,500,000 views on YouTube, has undoubtedly gathered a wide amount of attention from around the world. It seems that every year, there happens to be one audition that is simply unforgettable or amazing—and we certainly had one this season.

In case you have not seen the video yet, here it is. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

(Photo Credit: TV Scoop)

Read the full article »

Today, Seesmic took a big step and acquired Ping.fm, a service that allows the user to update more than 50 social networking sites at one time.

Obviously, it is a huge acquisition in the social media world. But what kind of an impact does it have on Twitter, if any?

Ping.fm allows the user to update certain social networking sites with updates. Obviously, when it is integrated with the Seesmic client, Seesmic will likely become a go-to social media platform for any social networking service. Primarily, Seesmic has catered to the Twitter community, but the plethora of services offered by Ping.fm means this will change.

With Ping.fm servicing so many social networking sites, there is a possibility that improvements on the Twitter end may not be made as frequently as before. In addition, if another social networking site emerges as competition to Twitter, Seesmic could be at the center of the program war. At this point, it does not appear that such a service is imminent, but it is certainly a possibility in the future.

More and more people are starting to realize the importance of having a total web presence on many social networking sites, and it certainly appears like Seesmic has gotten the message. Sites such as “Suicide Machine” also have taken advantage of the web presence mentality, forming a service that removes your social media presence from several websites— garnering a significant amount of media attention in the process.

What do you think about Seesmic’s acquisition of Twitter? Do you think it’s a good thing for Twitter in the short and long term?

Read the full article »