...But I'm Not Gloating

I just hate it when people say, "I told you so," and I do it as little as humanly possible. It's enough to have that smug feeling of superiority for having been 'way smarter than all the mere mortals out there. Hence, I will NOT say it...but I'm tempted. The object of this non-gloat is a survey just released by the Nielsen folks which indicate that Twitter has, perhaps, reached its zenith as a social networking tool and is headed toward its nadir as we speak, soon to be barely a Cheep. You've suffered through my rants about how stupid I think it is so I won't beat THAT dead horse anymore.(besides, it's already at your local McDonald's)
It's enough to say that 60% of all new Twitter accounts are cancelled after one month. Twitter "hitters" (those who return to Twitter on sequential months) have become Twitter "quitters" in vast numbers. "How vast?" I hear you asked, and I'm glad that you did so.
David Martin, the vice-president for primary research at the Nielsen group indicates that a retention rate MUST be over 50%, and 60%-70% is more likely where a site wants to be. Twitter's percentage of 40% retention qualifies it as lacking, though it was better last month than it had been before Oprah landed in the nest, as it were. (in comparison, the three people who read this blog on a regular basis come back month after month, giving me a 100% retention rate!)So how does Twitter stack up against the big boys: Facebook and MySpace?
In March, Facebook was visited by 41% of all United States web users.(mostly at work, I would guess, or listening to my lecture in class)
MySpace garnered a 33% share of web users.
Twitter managed to clutch a mere 8.2% of all web users in this country, counting Shaq, Oprah and Ashton Kutcher.
There is an hilarious video put out by the college humor people which shows a person doing the Twitter thing aloud with real people. You can find it at
collegehumor.com/videos
I guarantee you that you will think it's funny, especially if you think the whole Twitter thing is a bit like too much information.
Thanks for the link, Ryun.