According to a recent study from RJ Metrics, Twitter's growth in new accounts slowed from 7.8 million per month last summer to around 6.2 million currently. The report also found that only 17 percent of Twitter users updated their accounts in December, an all-time low.
Of the 75 million Twitter users identified at the close of 2009, roughly 25 percent of accounts had no followers and about 40 percent never made a single tweet. Four-fifths of the user base have tweeted less than ten times, and just 17 percent of Twitter users sent a message in the month of December. Also, the percentage of accounts sending out tweets has steadily declined over the past six months.
On RJ Metric's blog, Roger Moore, the company's CEO, stressed that the results weren't as bad as they seem. Non-tweeters appear to be new users who signed up after 2008, and early adopters are less likely to use it frequently. On the plus side, the 6.2 million sign-ups per month - or two to three per second - shows that "Twitter is still growing like a rocketship." Also, Mr. Moore said his firm's analysis reveals "tremendous loyalty and engagement" from those Twitter users who stay on the system after their first week as members. "In fact, those users who stay become more active over time, so much so that they make up for the missing activity from those users who leave," wrote Mr. Moore.
In all, with 75 million total accounts, an active user-base of around 20 percent still leaves around 15 million highly active tweeters, he noted.
Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, Gordon Farrar said the growth in Twitter may be peaking but he said Twitter users will eventually dwindle down to those motivated to continually deliver content.
"To be surprised that very few people tweet and that most have few followers is the same as being surprised that most people don't have their own radio show or newspaper column," wrote Mr. Farrar. "Once the short-term trend-followers and the rubber-neckers disappear, once the loudmouth online hawkers see their message is being ignored and drift to the next money-spinning opportunity, Twitter will settle into a useful everyday sifter and disseminator of online information. It will become the filter of choice of those who want to be fed media, technology, business and political news."
But Todd Wasserman, writing for Brandweek, said that much like Second Life, Twitter "has become a wasteland for brands." While it may work for celebrities, the millions of tweets sent out by many major brands have resulted in scant followers. He also quoted marketing people that claimed Facebook had copied most of Twitter's best features.
"I'm not a big fan of Twitter," Joel Ewanick, group vp of marketing for Hyundai, told Brandweek. "[Twitter has] become the butt of a joke. You start seeing in popular culture people making fun of Twitter."
Discussion Questions: What social media vehicle do you think is strongest from a B2C standpoint and why? Is Twitter an effective vehicle for brands and retailers to reach consumers?