Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Decline in my personal Twitter use #138

Yesterday I wondered if Linkedin had any value to me and concluded that I was unsure. Today I question whether it is worth having Twitter - I joined Twitter on 1st May 2009 (I was user #36,973,895) and was initially a keen user. However, over the past two years I have been less and less active. Most of my tweets now are simply my blog posts being automatically tweeted when I publish them. The chart below (from Twitonomy) shows my declining number of tweets - now usually no more than one or two a day:


I used to regularly check Twitter and see what others that I followed were tweeting about. I found it a fantastic learning tool and a great way to keep up with educational developments. People share some great ideas and I found myself fascinated by some of the links and shares provided. I also loved using Twitter for backchat at meetings and conferences. However, I found all this very time consuming, and I have nearly dropped off the Twitter scene. In my early days on Twitter I tried to use it in the classroom, but this was a complete failure. I have recently used it a bit to plug my book using the #WildAtalanticWay hashtag, but I have also virtually stopped reading tweets of others. I still haven't looked up the Rio Olympics hashtag! I should also mention that my commitment to write one blog post a day for 2016 means I have less time for other activities. 

Twitter as a company has some serious problems with declining engagement being widely reported. According to CNN Money, "Twitter still isn't close to making money", that it has "lost $2 billion since in 2011", and that there is a "big question mark" over the company. I just don't think Twitter is cool anymore!

No comments:

Post a Comment