The reason why I am leaving Twitter ….
I just deleted my Twitter account. It had over 25,000 followers. Here’s why…
About a year ago, I really loved Twitter. It was a lot of fun and it was great for communicating with people and for getting into all sorts of discussions. But as Twitter has grown, it’s become full of NOISE. Even, though, my follower count has risen, the response to my tweets has been on a steady decline. The reason is simple…
There’s just more and more noise on Twitter.
People are following so many people that single tweets are easily missed in someone’s timeline.
* I’ve confirmed this decline with many other Twitter users. And it’s only going to get worse.
Now I know there are many people that are going to DISAGREE with me on this. And that’s okay.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But let me explain further why I made this decision…
Certainly I could have just kept the account and only checked it every few days or so. Heck, I could have had one of my employees manage it for me. But I didn’t want to do that. And I came to recognize that no matter how little I may have used Twitter, it would still be robbing my focus. I’d still always wonder if someone had "@" messaged me to ask me something or if something else needed my attention. And THAT is what would have kept me constantly checking it multiple times a day like I had been.
For me, I feel like my time is much better spent not using Twitter. It’s my opinion, and again just my opinion, that Twitter has become an overhyped FAD. I think it’s only going to become more and more of a time-waster for people, and it’s going to become harder and harder to keep up with all the noise on it. Like I said, many will be sure to disagree with me.
There are many that believe "All things Social Media" are the greatest things since slice bread.
For me, however, I think time and energy is much better spent on fundamental areas of marketing — like communicating with your list (which I plan on doing more of) and creating great content for your audience. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll return to Twitter. But for now, it’s goodbye.
Frankly, it’s only been a few minutes since I deleted my account and I already feel this sense of RELIEF. Just knowing that it will no longer rob my focus throughout the day makes me feel good in knowing I’ll better focus on things I want to get done with my time. I once had great hopes for Twitter. I even stated I thought Twitter would be more valuable than Facebook. But now I really believe the opposite is true… ".
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Okay, I’ll come clean! 
These are not my words. They are the words of American marketeer, John Reese.
I thought they would prompt an interesting discussion!
Here is my response:
What this guy has said is the same as going into London and saying "isn’t it noisy!". Yes, it is!
But it is where all the action is happening, where all the movers and shakers hang out, where deals are done, where people are connecting, where people are talking about you, your product or service. On that basis, I would want to be there.
Twitter is no different. There is a lot of noise. If someone sends you a spammy tweet, then simply unfollow them. Simples! You have a choice of the messages that you are exposed to. (Isn’t that one of the beauties of social communications?)
For larger numbers, use a twitter client to manage your following – I recommend Seesmic.
If you went to a party, you wouldn’t expect to hear every single conversation at that party. Twitter is no different. You dip in and out.
Another analogy: if the streets of London get too noisy, you walk into a club where other people are interested in the same topic as you.
Twitter allows you the same virtual action. If you want to listen to specific conversations or topics, there are various methods of searching on them and monitoring them. You can niche the conversations down to those that are most relevant to you, again, filtering the noise.
However, and most significantly, Twitter is real-time, which is becoming an increasingly important focus of social communications. It is the way communications are going, so we need to learn and understand how to adapt to this constant input. Twitter is coaching us for the future.
Increasingly, the most up-to-date information is going to be the most relevant to the community. Contributing to Twitter puts you high up in the relevancy stakes, especially now google is indexing real-time searches.
As for me, I continue to get massive value from being on Twitter. I make new connections, learn new stuff, get inspired on a daily basis.
I go there to be social and I am learning to filter the "noise".
I personally think Twitter is far from being a fad. It will evolve. New tools and apps will appear all the time to help people leverage it. It’s where the party is.
Personally, I want to be there.
Look out for the guy with the funny haircut and the loud tie.
Thank you for stopping by my blog. If leveraging the power of social communications and media is of interest to you, and you want to get started in the most efficient manner possible, but you are unsure of how to move forwards, then please consider how to implement a social media strategy for your business. I have a few places left on my training day which is happening this Friday in Guildford. Click >>> here for details.
Every ecademist who books on will also receive a bonus – one hour of complimentary Twitter mentoring with my Twitter-holic wife, Vanessa! She will show you her strategies for building a targetted Twitter following and leveraging the power of Twitter in a social manner to create visibility and credibility. Business will be a by-product of that.
Thank you to Ian Hunter on my Property Tribes forum for inspiring this post and drawing my attention to John Reese’s email.
Regards
N
