bill bennett

journalism + new media

Twitter enters the trough of disillusionment

with 4 comments

Canadian public relations practitioner Dave Fleet says Twitter has moved through the Gartner Hype Cycle to the point where it will now quickly become unfashionable. In his  Five Potential Effects Of Twitter's Shift To The Trough Of Disillusionment Fleet charts the technology's progress and predicts what will happen next.

Fleet's analysis is on the money. But there's something else going on with Twitter. After a period of stability, the service is changing. Earlier this week the company altered the way users propagate messages – a process known as retweeting.

In other words, Twitter is still evolving. It will probably be a different beast by the time it resumes its progress through the later stages of the Garter Hype Cycle. Or maybe something else will replace it.

Written by Bill Bennett

August 15th, 2009 at 7:36 pm

4 Responses to 'Twitter enters the trough of disillusionment'

  1. [...] I follow about 25 Australian and New Zealand journalist on Twitter, about the same number of public relations people and a handful of both from elsewhere in the world. As an unscientific rule of thumb, I’d say only 40 percent of journalists are using Twitter in … [...]

  2. [...] Twitter enters the trough of disillusionment [...]

    Twitter on the Gartner Hype Cycle | Knowledge Workers | Widespread Solutions

    18 Aug 09 at 5:03 am

  3. I’ve gone from excited pioneer to frustrated participant to totally disinterested.

    I can see lots of value for broadcast but this business of conversation has gone beyond anything I can make work. With everybody chasing followers then boring them with inane halves of conversations, or worse still offering to help get more followers so you can do the same.

    The whole thing is irrelevant now.

    Steve Reeves

    18 Aug 09 at 5:09 am

  4. [...] Twitter enters the trough of disillusionment [...]

Leave a Reply