There has been a significant change in the way people are reading tweets. This, of course, may affect the way Twitter users react to advertisements.

An idea struck me when I saw this article from Oliver Marks entitled “Twitter Four Years On: Investing Time Wisely.” If we think about it, it has been four years since the creation of Twitter. While one can attest that 2009 is the peak of its success, changes have occurred on the users over time. Take for example the utilization of Twitter for business which brought about the increased occurrence of advertisements. These only occurred with time.

Of course, it is not only the posters that changed. The tweet reading habits of Twitter users have also changed as well. I could still remember the times when I can carry on a full conversation on Twitter. While we know that we can utilize other means like online messengers, Twitter seemed to be a viable way during those times. But today, I somehow think that it is not that possible. While it may be useful for comments and sharing information, it is not as good for holding conversations. In fact, I think that email may fare better when it comes to this purpose. With this, the way I read tweets has also changed. Unlike before where I am excited to see the friendly tweets, now I am drained to see the constant sharing of links. Not that it is bad. I think this phenomenon has triggered my filter switch to only click through information that I am interested in.

To cut the long story short, I have this guess that people are not reading tweets as well as they used to. Ask yourself. Are you reading each and every tweet? I doubt that anyone can do that unless of course if you do not have a life and you can get online Twitter all day (which may also mean you are not human). What I mean is people’s habit of reading tweets have changed and this may affect the success of tweeting advertisements.

But of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. There are people who have built enough credibility online that they can send out messages and be noticed. The tweets of these people seem to trigger a this-is-important light bulb on their followers which makes their tweets not only read but retweeted to even more people.

With this, there is a question if Twitter remains to be a good advertisement tool. People are not giving that much attention to tweets like they used to. So if you are thinking on promoting your product online, maybe it is better to simply use other means of advertising. Or maybe you should just make your tweets more catchy.

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