RIP Twitter? Maybe . . . But that Might Be A Good Thing

So, just yesterday CNN.com published a story titled “Has Twitter Peaked.” According to the article, Twitter usage (measured by unique visitors) has effectively flat-lined since the middle of last year. While nobody agrees on the actual numbers, most of the web audience measurement firms (comScore, Compete, Quantcast) agree that traffic to the site peaked in July / August and actually declined by the end of the year.

Twitter Traffic – June 09 - Dec 09

Should we care about this? Does this signal the end of Twitter as we know it?

I hope so, because Twitter really needs to change and there are some signs that it may be morphing into something that might actually be useful for business.

Twitter has taken a number of good steps to encourage user engagement. They have allowed users to create lists of followers. For example, I can create a “friends” list, or a colleagues list. Using the list feature, tweets from my “friends” or “colleagues are separated from my full tweet stream. It makes it easier for me to follow them, reply and re-tweet. It’s not perfect, because the Twitter interface is awful. But, since I can now separate followers into lists of my own making, it makes an unbelievably bad user interface a little more tolerable.

The other step Twitter has taken to encourage user engagement and conversation is add the Twitter trends and Local trends feature. This is a pretty cool feature because it allows a user to see what conversations are trending across all of Twitter, or within your local area. I like it. I like it a lot, as it encourages people to become more engaged on the site and with each other, and that is what social media is all about.

So has Twitter peaked? It certainly looks like it has in the short-term.  Is this the end of Twitter as we know it. I actually hope so, because I think that is a good thing.  This plateau, this peak is going to force Twitter to address user issues and (hopefully) figure out what they want to be when they grow up.

If I were king for day, I would like to see Twitter do the following:

1) Completely redesign the user interface / experience. The current interface, with tweets stacked-up in chronological order, is like reading a roll of toilet paper. It’s too easy to miss tweets that you may want to see. Look at applications like Tweet Deck or HootSuite and copy them. For the most part, these applications get the interface right.

2) Let me select the followers from whom I can receive DM’s. And while your at it, ban auto-DM’s. They are spam – always – in all cases.

3) Expand Twitter profiles to include more demographic information, and give users the option (like Facebook) of filling it in. At a minimum, allow users to add personal interest information (i.e., music, movies, fitness, cooking, health & wellness, etc.) about themselves. And then let me search on that so that I can find followers who share my interests.

There are many other items on my list. This is just the top three. I’ll be curious to see how Twitter morphs over the coming months. It will continue to be a lot of fun to watch!