I still remember, vaguely, when Fonzi jumped the shark on Happy Days, signaling what we know today as the decline of the show, but more importantly, I remember when Henry Winkler actually jumped a shark on Arrested Development.  Much like Happy Days, Twitter seems to be in a decline.  This statement is based on general observations and not on actual usage statistics because user statistics don’t show the real value that something can provide.  I know from personal usage (I have been registered on Twitter for over a year now) that I check it frequently and every once in a while I find something useful, but a majority of the time there isn’t anything that peaks my interest.  The following is some of my observations why I believe that Twitter has strapped on their water skis, hit the ramp, and are flying through the air in their best Fonzi impersonation.

There is too much spam right now.  Everyone is asking me to check out their sexy pictures, which I would if I a. wasn’t at work, or b. didn’t have morals.  Even the ones that don’t ask me to check out their pics are someone who is trying to be the social marketing entrepreneur of the year and just posting news articles from other sites.  Trust me lame guy, I have news aggregators that I have been using long before you lost your job and decided that we had a real need for you getting me news.  Also, these twammers are all about getting followers for their Twitter profile.  Red flags tend to be raised when you have over 1,000 followers and no updates.

People seem to be locking their profiles now in order to follow them.  Dave Navarro (@davenavarro6767) of Jane’s Addiction has done this recently and swears by it.  I have also seen more people that do not deal with fame lock their profiles.  I am tempted to do this but I feel that I would be defeating the purpose of Twitter.  I have always treated Twitter as my public profile and Facebook as my more private profile.

Even legitimate twitters, at least on the surface, are now willing to take money to post ads in their tweets.  I don’t knock them for trying to get the money while there is money to be getting, but come on, you have 4,000 followers and I don’t have a clue who they are or how I begin to target them other than a generic message.  I could definitely do test messages to see which one resonates the best, but then I come back to you only have 4,000 followers and 10 updates a day.

Recently, this short term study that Pear Analytics put together puts some analytical data with my above ranting.  This study should be considered in the eye of the beholder but it does state an interesting trend, “Twitter tweets are 40% ‘babble’.”  I think I would have used a more descriptive term like crap.  It also goes on to state, “8.7% of messages could be said to have “value” as they passed along news of interest.”  That is not much, especially considering the amount of time people spend on Twitter.  I know that people don’t spend 9% of their time on Twitter, but when budgeting out time, shouldn’t you have more than a 1 to 1 ratio of value?

I will still use Twitter and feel that companies should get involved in tweeting, especially if they have something of value to offer the follower.  It can be done respectively, just check out Pizza Hut (@pizzahut), and follow their twintern.  A company mixing in some personality with breaking news and a promotion here and there will go a long way on validating Twitter and keeping it an option long after they touch down on the landing ramp, clearing the shark with ease.  At this moment I have my concerns but I am still thrusting my two thumbs up and saying “Aaay.”

The image used in this post is from Wikipedia.