Twitter's Plan To Appeal To The Masses: Demolish The "Town Square"

The social network is experiencing slow growth. Sure, Twitter is implementing a slew of changes that will transform it into a website very different from the text-based social network we've come to love. And maybe you've gotten bored with it. That doesn't mean we'll be attending its funeral any time soon.

Early adopters will no doubt decry Twitter's evolution—and I'm one of them. I'm not a fan of the new Twitter that copies features from Facebook with abandon, and I'm definitely not alone. People who have used the service for years have become accustomed to the way it looks and operates; we've become the Twitter elite that gets how Twitter works, with all the silly hashtags and Twitter canoes, and we don't want more people coming in to rock the boat.

The thing is, Twitter can't be considered a dead social network until it has time to live among the masses. And to appeal to a larger audience—one that isn't just tech bloggers, media, early adopters and their ilk—it needs to change.

Twitter, as we know it, might be dying. But much like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, Twitter needs to experience radical change before it can really fly.
Indeed, Twitter has a slow growth problem, but it’s not for lack of awareness. Twitter is unavoidable:
Tweets are embedded on news outlets around the world, broadcasters read tweets while calling sporting events, and it’s almost impossible to watch live television without seeing an advertisement incorporate a hashtag or an @-mention.

People are aware of Twitter, they just don’t know how—or why—they should use it.

The company has made significant changes to its core product in an effort attract a broader audience and boost user growth. Most notably, the company completely redesigned user profiles by ripping off a more user-friendly service—Facebook. The Facebookification of Twitter certainly has its downsides—we don't want another place for friends. But as its slow growth demonstrates, Twitter, as it is right now, isn't enough.

Twitter also hinted at more tweaks to its direct message product, a feature that has seen its own share of updates in recent months. A more robust messaging service that complements its companion app strategy will hopefully encourage even more people to use the application.

Try as it might to convince users otherwise, Twitter still faces an identity problem. It’s struggling to become a must-have application for everyone, while those of us who rely on it for news and events are slowly becoming dissatisfied with the way it seems to be diluting itself to appeal to a broader audience.

Twitter is taking a risk—it's making changes to get more people on the service that alienate the people that helped build it up in the first place. It's a risk Twitter is willing to take, because getting the next 255 million people on Twitter is worth making a few dedicated users very unhappy.