Social Media Top 5: Twitter Abandonment Issues, FriendFeed Traction? and Nothing’s New No More

Nielsen says “Twitter Quitters Post Roadblock to Long-Term Growth”: It’s troubling that one of my favorite social networking (and marketing) tools is suffering from a lot of abandoned accounts: over 60%, really? Is this due to the recent celebrity presence spawning more curious signups who then walk away?

I suspect that the utter simplicity of Twitter may be part of the problem. It’s easy to use, it’s easy to dismiss- but it’s also easy to come back to. I signed up for Twitter in October 2006 (apparently before social media nerdlebrity Robert Scoble, which shocks me) but didn’t use it until March 2007 (after Scoble, I’d put money on it).

The utter simplicity of Twitter is the reason I’m not shorting it (like my friend and log inspirer Ed Lee). I still say Twitter is the “cockroach” of social media. It’s going to take more than one isolated statistic to kill it.

Is FriendFeed getting traction? I don’t have a citation for this, but I have been getting a lot more follows on FriendFeed lately. Has FriendFeed done something I’m not aware of to promote itself? I know they redesigned the interface. FriendFeed has always interested me as a source of news and a secondary source of conversation, higher quality but fewer people. I use it to run feeds such as my blog, Flickr photos, del.icio.us bookmarks, and more through one source (and often through Twitter). Will that be changing? Will FriendFeed challenge Twitter?

A Little Poetry from Gary Goldhammer

I’m not big on poetry (the occasional dirty limerick aside), but Gary Goldhammer’s lines reflect something I believe strongly: that “social media” is less new concept than it is new delivery mechanisms.

The money line may be “Technology is not conversation.” Read the whole thing here.

More Proof That Social Media is Nothing New: Of course, one could argue that even a “FailWhale”- riddled Twitter service may be more efficient than the US Postal Service. This tale of a postcard delivered 47 years late underscores the enduring appeal of inane conversation.

One More Thing: Another Reminder of Why We Should Concentrate on the Communication, not the Delviery Mechanism: If you’re being an idiot, do you really want to tell the world? If you’re a pro athlete, do you really want to roll against the odds that you are probably being such an idiot much of the time? It’s not Twitter’s fault that San Francisco Giants pitcher Brian Wilson used Twitter to recount a bar fight. He was being an idiot.

OK, turn an ancient truism upside down. Shoot the Messenger. It’s for his own good.