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The reason both Twitter and Google+ are struggling to grow their user base, IMO is because many folks I have talked to - find both products difficult to underst

The reason both Twitter and Google+ are struggling to grow their user base, IMO is because many folks I have talked to - find both products difficult to understand and use. Surprisingly most normal folks don't really get what "follow" means, and the slightly arcane terminology of twitter. The learning curve is a bit steep - and most users sign up, hang around for a while, don't really invest in discovering and following the right people, and soon just give up and never come back. The same is true for G+ - as in both cases your experience is defined by who you follow. Facebook got this right - as the simple concept of a "Friend" request translates perfectly to the real-world analog of making friends. While Follow is an abstract, invented concept with no real-world analog. That together with the torrent of noise and information on Twitter, and no good tools to filter and manage the feed efficiently, make Twitter a tough product to use even for experienced users. I personally love Tweetdeck - and have managed to tame the newsfeed with lists etc - but it is still tiresome and inefficient.

otis_inf 11y ago
> Surprisingly most normal folks don't really get what "follow" means, and the slightly arcane terminology of twitter. The learning curve is a bit steep - and most users sign up, hang around for a while, don't really invest in discovering and following the right people, and soon just give up and never come back. Question, do these people who find it hard to grasp how twitter works have facebook accounts? As facebook is way more complicated than twitter is (which is just a textbox, a submit button and that's basically it).
- pitchups 11y ago
  Yes, every one of these folks - mostly friends and family - has a Facebook account and are active users of Facebook. It is not the simplicity of having a textbox and a submit button that matters in this case - they all know how to post a tweet. It is that once they do that - nothing happens. In FB - a post often immediately gets a reaction - a like or a comment - even if they have only a few friends. The stuff you post on FB is not as transient - while your Tweet most likely disappeared in a few seconds from the timeline of your followers.
- forthefuture 11y ago
  >As facebook is way more complicated than twitter is (which is just a textbox, a submit button and that's basically it). The problem with Twitter is exactly that it's a text box and a submit button. Following 0 people and with 0 followers what is my Mom supposed to type into that text box? That's what new users see when they create an account, literally nothing. On Facebook you just add the people you know and talk to them like you usually do. On twitter you can't even find the people you already know.
volaski 11y ago
question: do these same people have hard time grasping what "follow" means on Instagram? or Tumblr? or Pinterest?

otis_inf 11y ago

> Surprisingly most normal folks don't really get what "follow" means, and the slightly arcane terminology of twitter. The learning curve is a bit steep - and most users sign up, hang around for a while, don't really invest in discovering and following the right people, and soon just give up and never come back. Question, do these people who find it hard to grasp how twitter works have facebook accounts? As facebook is way more complicated than twitter is (which is just a textbox, a submit button and that's basically it).

pitchups 11y ago
Yes, every one of these folks - mostly friends and family - has a Facebook account and are active users of Facebook. It is not the simplicity of having a textbox and a submit button that matters in this case - they all know how to post a tweet. It is that once they do that - nothing happens. In FB - a post often immediately gets a reaction - a like or a comment - even if they have only a few friends. The stuff you post on FB is not as transient - while your Tweet most likely disappeared in a few seconds from the timeline of your followers.
forthefuture 11y ago
>As facebook is way more complicated than twitter is (which is just a textbox, a submit button and that's basically it). The problem with Twitter is exactly that it's a text box and a submit button. Following 0 people and with 0 followers what is my Mom supposed to type into that text box? That's what new users see when they create an account, literally nothing. On Facebook you just add the people you know and talk to them like you usually do. On twitter you can't even find the people you already know.

volaski 11y ago

question: do these same people have hard time grasping what "follow" means on Instagram? or Tumblr? or Pinterest?