13 Jul 2015

Twitter Must Thrive (bullet-point version)

A Bullet-Point Summary of OTTN’s Twitter Analysis

See original analysis here.

  • Intro
    • Twitter is an important institution
      • Has admirable goal of giving everyone power to create and share ideas and information instantaneously
      • Gone a long way towards making Twitter the product into a “global town square” of sorts
    • Disturbing to see Twitter the company stumble
      • Public market investors are increasingly skeptical that Twitter can:
        1. Grow its revenue commensurate with its market capitalization
        2. Achieve its goal of reaching every single person on the planet.
      • Resultant negative sentiment puts undue pressure on management to take actions that may be unhelpful
    • OTTN has ideas and recommendations to help Twitter to thrive
      • Overlap in some respects w/ company’s articulated objectives:
        1. Strengthening Twitter’s core
        2. Removing barriers to consumption
        3. Building new applications and services to increase Twitter as a utility across the world.
      • However, some ideas/recommendations deviate from or are in addition to company-stated goals
  • Strengthening the Core Through Design
    • Fixing the Firehose
      • Company must help its users avoid being overwhelmed by the Tweet stream
      • Getting away from reverse-chron a good idea
        • Must be able to easily go back in time to get context
        • Must be able to filter/compartmentalize stream of Tweets
      • Introducing context to the timeline
        • Conversation threads great example
        • Could make it easier to set bookmarks in lists which users can jump back to when resuming use of Twitter
      • List functionality must be improved, generally
        • Lists allow users to self-curate firehose into digestible streams based on interest
        • Lists functionality is buried in desktop and mobile apps
          • Need dedicated icons and buttons for lists
        • Lists surprisingly devoid of algorithmic curation
          • Need tab for suggested Tweets to view
          • Could enhance algorithmic curation by giving users ability to associate pre-defined topics or categories with lists
    • Likes, Bookmarks, and Favorites, Oh My
      • Need to split favoriting functionality into liking and bookmarking
        • Likes are for acknowledging Tweets that are clever, useful, inspiring, etc.
        • Bookmarking is for saving Tweets and linked contents for later use
      • Combining two types of functionality into “favoriting” reduces usefulness of Twitter and confuses new users
    • Solving the “Short-Form Problem”
      • Twitter not great for complex, well-thought-out public discussions and debates
        • 140 character limit and simple messaging format limit complexity of ideas expressed
      • Twitter has attempted to solve problem with direct messaging
        • Group messaging without character limits now allowed
      • BUT direct messaging won’t solve short-form problem
        • Group messaging is always private
        • Messaging service/chat format is inferior for encouraging well-thought-out discussions involving large numbers of people
      • Should integrate tightly with new long-form discussion venues
    • Contemporizing Twitter
      • UX a bit outdated in terms of visual design
      • Need to incorporate three dimensionality or material design
      • Immersive view and touch format
        • Similar to “cover flow” or Tinder-swiping
  • Search, Search, Search
    • Elephant in the room: Twitter search less than robust
    • Ability to easily search Twitterverse for what’s happening right now must be core function
      • Both for logged-in and logged-out users
    • Third party search deals (e.g., with Google) are great, but not enough
      • Must improve on-Twitter search functionality
    • Everyone should understand Twitter to be the place to find real-time information about what’s going on in the world
    • New search UI is a good start
      • Allows filtering by top Tweets, live Tweets, photos, etc.
    • Search should be much more immersive
      • Less reliant on “old school” ribbon-like stream
      • More visual pop when filtering by rank, contemporaneity, media type, etc.
      • Results should be primary visual focus
        • Get rid of unrelated Trends section in results
        • Minimize “Who to Follow” suggestions
      • Less minimalistic desktop search
        • Try live tile interface with pre-populated trending searches and results
        • Note: Desktop UI will inform big screen and augmented reality UI
    • Logged-in users should be able to easily search through own and bookmarked Tweets
      • Twitter is repository of user’s past activity
  • Browsing Twitter: Channels and Trending Content
    • Twitter needs interface that allows users to more easily browse through content
    • Add channels and trending/popular content to Discover or Explore tab
      • For both logged-in and logged-out users
      • Modeled after YouTube
    • Channels would include pre-defined categories or topics
      • Music, Sports, Comedy, News, etc.
      • Live and Local content
    • Separate buttons for trending and popular content
    • Use Vine as model
    • Project Lightning can’t come soon enough
      • Provides users human-curated set of content centered around specific live events occurring at the moment
  • Extra, Extra — Read All About It!
    • Twitter and “the News” goes hand in hand
      • News consumption facilitated through direct following of news outlets or via referral by other users
      • But surprisingly little done to become predominant consumption vehicle for users who gets news and analysis from multiple online sources
    • Following Facebook: Instant Articles
      • See Facebook Instant Articles
      • Unlike Facebook product, Twitter version would be both great for users and net positive for large and small publishers
        • Twitter not as reliant as Facebook on single news feed that must be algorithmically curated
        • Self curation means less undue influence on what content users get to see
        • Users can create multiple streams (i.e., lists) based on interest
      • Publishers can benefit greatly from Twitter interest graph
        • More powerful than Facebook social graph for relevant ads
        • Good for publishers who are not savvy at serving up own ads
    • Testing the Waters with Micropayments
      • Paywalls are annoying
        • Opportunity for Twitter
      • Twitter cards + pre-paid wallet of micropayment credits could be solution for breaking through paywalls for high value content
        • Probable success stems from Twitter’s interest-based nature
      • Tweets w/ paywall content links have associated data that lets users determine whether or not linked articles have value
        • Tweeting, retweeting, and favoriting demonstrate value
          • Particularly for trusted accounts
        • User-added data
          • “Must read” labels, quotes, infographics, and even screenshots
        • Conversations surrounding articles
      • Getting micropayments right could make Twitter indispensable part of news ecosystem
    • Replacing RSS
      • Twitter should leverage strength in news distribution to capture RSS users
        • Focusing only on real-time news keeps Twitter from acquiring users that read news stories/analyses that are not time sensitive in nature
      • Replace services like Feedly and Flipboard
        • Serve as self-curated news/analysis inboxes that help users compartmentalize and avoid information overload
      • Twitter product not currently designed to be able to replace RSS feed reader user experience. Options:
        1. Re-design core service to add this functionality
        2. Acquire (e.g., Flipboard)
        3. Integrate with OS provider news apps (e.g., Apple News app) for ad revenue cut
    • Publisher Integrations for Personalized Off-Twitter Experiences
      • Twitter could be perfect partner for generating personalized experiences on news outlets’ branded properties
      • Example
        • Economist subscriber could use Twitter feed to preview and select articles to be presented in Economist app at end of the week
      • Would increase publishers’ ability to monetize content by serving more targeted ads to users
  • Accelerating the Apps Build-Out
    • Apps Strategy
      • Key to:
        1. Fulfilling goal to reach at least a billion users both off- and on-Twitter; and
        2. Promise to Wall Street to generate revenue from that reach
      • Currently appears to be focused on content creation apps
        • E.g., Vine and Periscope
        • Makes sense but not enough to maintain and grow logged-in user base
      • Growing logged-in user base must be core part of app strategy
        • Logged-in users significantly more valuable than logged-out users from a monetization perspective
        • Part and parcel of informal goal to create platform that connects everyone to their world
      • Success will require building or tightly integrating with apps that deviate from “four pillars” of being “simultaneously public, real-time, conversational and widely distributed”
      • Should be involved with interest-based connections or searches where timeliness and trendiness of content matters
    • Content Consumption-Focused Apps
      • Should create new apps for logged-in users to consume specific types of Twitter content
      • Partner with third party devs to create logged-in, consumption-focused experiences that combine/co-mingle developers’ own unique content with Twitter content by:
        1. Pulling specific types of Twitter data using a special API; or
        2. Requiring users to create or maintain connections through Twitter
      • Time, place, and form matters for content consumption
        • Sometimes, real-time consumption neither desirable nor feasible
          • Instead, timeliness or trendiness, combined with ease of digestion, matters
        • Consumption may not be intended to be in public
        • Form of content may be controlling factor for consumption
      • Many do not user Twitter because type of content they are interested in not optimally consumed via traditional service
        • Hence need to create new app experiences
      • Ideas for Twitter-created, consumption-focused apps
        • Local events and meetups
        • Local commerce
        • Public notifications
      • Third party consumption-focused apps
        • Personalized, consumption-focused experiences that use Twitter data not easily pulled using normal public Search and Streaming APIs
          • Give devs special access to Twitter data if own content would allow them to run unique, personalized searches on behalf of logged-in users
          • Would help Twitter better understand logged-in users’ interests and provide more venues for targeted ad monetization
        • New consumption-focused experiences that rely on logged-in users creating or maintaining Twitter connections
          • Would pull Twitter content from logged-in user’s existing list of followed accounts or from curated list of accounts for user to follow — or both
      • Example: Stand-up comedy app
        • Unique content from comedians and info about types of comedy users enjoy
        • Could partner with Twitter to provide user-personalized comedic content in the form of Tweets, Vines, Periscopes, etc.
        • Content pulled through special Twitter search or based on comedians user follows on Twitter
        • Monetize through branded advertising or MoPub platform
    • Apps for Interest-Based Groups
      • Public and private virtual spaces for people to communicate about, and organize around, shared interests
        • Old school: Email lists, usenet newsgroups, IRC channels, web forums/message boards
        • New school: “Social” websites and apps that are either purpose-specific (e.g., Imgur) or more general purpose (e.g., Reddit); even Facebook
      • Twitter already connected to many interest-based community spaces via Twitter Kit and Tweet button
      • Two types of interest-based group apps that Twitter could release
        1. Organization-focused app with an emphasis on events and meetups
          • Would compete with Meetup and Facebook Groups
          • Log in using Twitter’s Digits product, but could link Twitter account
          • Group members could create events, have discussions, direct message other members, conduct polls, upload files and photos, collect membership dues, etc.
          • For public groups, public Twitter account would automatically be created
          • Events, posts, and polls could easily be shared to Twitter by group admins
          • Easy Tweet (and other) embeds in discussions
          • Private by default
        2. App allowing interest-based groups to create public long-form discussion spaces organized by topic
          • Essentially, a modernization of the public message board/web forum
            • Hybrid of Medium and Slack, the enterprise messaging app
          • Admin-created topic categories similar to Slack channels
          • Ability to add rich formatting and notes, and attach or embed documents, pictures, videos, and Tweets, among other things
          • Every post would incorporate Tweet, heart and bookmark buttons
          • Only admitted members would be able to post, heart, and bookmark
          • Each group space would be accessible on web and theme-able
          • Group spaces would also be accessible on mobile app released by Twitter
          • Authentication using Twitter’s Digits product, with ability to create different personas for each group
  • Real-Time Infrastructure Services
    • Twitter should create real-time infrastructure services business
      • Would allows third party software developers and hardware manufacturers to stream, store, and sync data in real-time across multiple devices and connected things
    • Essentially, create Twitter version of services like Firebase and PubNub
    • Monetization
      • Traditional payment for use of infrastructure service
      • Allow infrastructure service users to put data into Twitter firehose for monetization
        • GNIP social data services arm would become reseller of real-time data being generated by these third parties
      • Partner with other infrastructure service providers to offer services in conjunction with their own
        • E.g., make it easy for customer to store generated data with Amazon or dump data into IBM’s Watson services
  • Up Periscope
    • Live video streaming app and service
    • Could revolutionize how live video experiences are created and consumed because of several factors:
      1. Makes creation of live video “broadcasts” incredibly easy
      2. Although presents a one to many experience, also provides for real-time interaction and feedback to broadcaster
      3. Because phone app, broadcasts have potential to be more intimate, more unexpected or serendipitous, and less staged than typical live broadcasts
      4. Popularizing notion of ephemeral video on the consumption end, which could present interesting value proposition
      5. Connection to Twitter means decent discovery and, possibly, curation mechanism built into product
    • Because discovery huge part of value added by Twitter to Periscope, design changes may need to be made to enhance broadcast discoverability
      • Requre hashtags in addition to titles for broadcasts, with default tag of #Periscope being added to each broadcast
      • Come up with topic categories that can be added to broadcasts by viewers
    • Availability of Periscope broadcasts on Twitter will be major value add to Twitter itself
      • Plans to enhance on-Twitter search and browsing must incorporate Periscope broadcast discovery in a big way
      • Should cut out broadcast discovery from third party search deals
      • Should consider making desktop and TV experience for browsing in addition to mobile experience
        • Timing will depend on when keeping browsing only on mobile app stops being sweetener for downloading app
    • Tread carefully when considering lengthening amount of time broadcasts are available for replay
      • Periscope special because of ephemeral nature
      • Fleeting nature of broadcasts may increase their value
        • Could open up long tail of live event experiences that can be experienced remotely
      • Switching to archiving could turn Periscope into YouTube Capture, which might be less “magical”
        • Maybe not so bad, though, for monetization through video ads
    • Periscope brand should remain coupled to the mobile device
      • Bad idea to turn Periscope into live broadcast service that takes in video from more than just phone
      • Periscope should remain window into world through someone else’s eyes, which means keeping it associated with mobile device
      • If Twitter wants to directly facilitate live broadcasts from non-mobile devices, should do so using Twitter property or YouTube-like property
    • Periscope must take active role in protecting content rights, especially for key Twitter partners
      • Develop well-designed tools for content owners to police rights
      • Partner with Internet service providers, venues, artists/performers, etc.
      • Could give Periscope “moat” by giving it a vital role in supply chain for live content
      • Example: Partner with NBA, venues, and ISPs to make sure certain types of live streaming content get out of arena via Periscope
      • Example: Give venues and artists ability to register location and event for live broadcasts to be monetized through watch fee or commercials; could also facilitate later syndication
  • Miscellaneous Monetization
    • Selling Financial Analysis in Real-Time
      • Direct response program to sell high value financial analysis from reputable sources in real time
    • Twitter Tix
      • Special commerce program focused exclusively on selling tickets from “long tail”
    • The Human Sensor Network and the Firehose
      • Come up with creative ways to provide standardized real-time input from users to data consumers, essentially offering value added services on top of firehose
  • The Privacy Protective Social Conglomerate?
    • Opportunity to become “social conglomerate” that is far more protective of user privacy and dignity than larger competitors
      • Paying attention to user privacy can be made into competitive advantage
    • Privacy cred
      • Core service well known to be public in nature, so user expectations more realistic
      • Privacy settings much easier to navigate and customize than with other services
      • Opt-in standard for adding location data to Tweets, getting direct messages from the public, and sharing contact info through Digits for “friend finding”
      • Privacy-related options that are not opt-in easily opted out of through straightforward settings
      • Do Not Track supported
      • Pseudonymous participation has always been allowed
      • Company assertive in protecting user data from arbitrary government requests and fighting for right to disclose when requests have been made
      • Where failure to protect user privacy/dignity, company has admitted failures and tried to change policies accordingly
    • Could do more
      • Introduce filtering options to only allow public messaging when there is verified identity behind account
      • Be even more upfront with users about how information is used and limits on third party use of data
      • Add “ephemeral location” option to services
        • Users get relevant location-based information and offers, but location data not persistently connected to accounts and Tweets
      • Be clear about how MoPub integrated into other offerings, including firehose