Tuesday

Twitter’s Strategy: Let’s Learn From It

Love them or hate them, you have to admit that they did things right

Twitter has grown surprisingly from a small micro-blogging service to a mainstream darling that gets more and more press every day.

Things started off slow for this company, but as time progresses, they only get faster. Everyday, we are closer to seeing the long-awaited monetization process that is sure to take Twitter into a Google sort of realm.

While we (and no one else) have no clue as to how Twitter is going to make money, we can learn a lot from how they got things going. Here are some tips that could help you in building your own startup into a Twitter-like phenomenon.

-    Focus on real time: Most things in the realm of Web 2.0 have been done, but real time interaction and feedback is something Twitter got right to start with. It allowed it to stand out from other Web 2.0/Social Networking/Shiny-new sites.
-    Skip the extra steps: Twitter makes it easy for you to interact with others (follow them, have them follow you) without pesky notifications and other things that make it difficult to get down to what a site is all about.
-    Force your users to do less: Twitter is so easy to use, that if my grandmother wanted to use it, she could get the hang of it in one second. This is a great way to get more users faster. All you need to do is type 140 characters. That’s it.

-    Build a cult following: What is a cult following good for? Well, for once, when things go terribly wrong, they’ll have your back. They also spread word on your startup, blogging about it constantly.
-    Integrate with the competition: Twitter does it with Facebook, and that works great for both, but better for Twitter. By integrating your features into similar features from other services, you get all the shine.
-    Launch where your influencers are: Make a big splash with the people who are going to use your startup. Twitter did it by launching at SXSW Interactive, and it worked wonderfully for them.
-    Build a public authority ranking: People like to be measured up against others, it’s something that’s inside every human being. People love to be ranked by the number of followers they have, and that works for Twitter’s advantage. If you can find a way to rank people or things against each other, you’ll be set for success.

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