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Twitter as a brand might be well-known, but people are not entirely sure about how to use it, reveals the company’s own survey. Twitter has been in the doldrums, and is facing growth issues for sometime now. User engagement, and monthly active users have not really grown exponentially for Twitter, and the service has already been surpassed by Instagram. The latter has 500 million monthly active users, well ahead of Twitter’s 310 million users. For Twitter challenges to its growth are many, but it seems the biggest one is convincing users on what the product can do for them.
Twitter in a blogpost put out some rather interesting trends from a research, which highlighted that while the brand has global recognition, the product has left many users confused on what it really offers. According to Twitter’s blogpost, “ninety percent of people globally recognize the Twitter brand,” which sounds like really good news. The blogpost goes on to add, “We heard loud and clear that those who use Twitter do so because they know exactly what Twitter is for and why it’s important in their lives. The majority of people who use Twitter the most told us it’s the best and fastest way to see what’s happening.”
However, it is also clear there are people who know of Twitter as a brand, but are not too keen on using, which brings out the core problem with the social network. The blogpost says people who don’t use Twitter were unable to understand what the product is for, with some seeing it as a social network or a place to connect with friends and family. Also people are under the assumption that to use Twitter, daily tweets are a must, and since they didn’t have much to say, so many didn’t bother using it.
For a social media network that’s been around for ten years, this is worrying news, that the central idea behind Twitter is still unclear, even to those who have heard of the brand.
In the blogpost, Twitter says they’ve realised they have “some explaining and clarifying to do” and from today will start to express what the service is about. Twitter plans to roll out “marketing including videos and digital ads” which will explain what’s happening on the social network.
Also read: Here is how to get your Twitter handle verified
Twitter has already been surpassed by Snapchat when it comes to daily active users (DAUs), according to recent reports. Twitter’s DAUs are pegged at 130-140 million, and Snapchat is just slightly ahead at 150 million. Snapchat has been around for five years (started in September 2011), compared to Twitter’s ten years (started in 2006). If you look at how well rivals are doing, numbers are not exactly in Twitter’s favour.
Now the recent survey shows some people don’t really understand what they should use Twitter for, and it’s not something the social network can hope to explain in a day or even a month.