The Twitter Blues

Posted by Scott McClellan on May 27th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

In the last few months, I’ve become a big fan of Twitter. I even blogged about my new love here. Last week, however, I was really frustrated by Twitter. The service was down … again. The outage lasted several hours, and as soon as the site was back up, the Twitterverse erupted with complaints about the platform’s lack of reliability. The irony: Twitter is completely free to its users. The problem: Twitter’s user-base is a tech-savvy lot who are big on information, connectedness, and instant gratification.

Even though Twitter is free, the “you get what you pay for” mindset won’t cut it for Twitter’s users. If Twitter doesn’t get its act together, users will surely continue to complain at the top of the lungs, and eventually abandon the service in favor of something more reliable. (Read Bill Seaver’s thoughts on the matter here.)

To me, the lesson here is simple: Just because your service/product/site/whatever is free doesn’t give it the right to stink. In an ad-supported world (TV, Internet, radio, etc.), tons of things are free (Twitter, Gmail, AIM, Blogger, YouTube). But that doesn’t mean those things should target mediocrity. Novelty can attract a crowd, but it takes excellence to keep the crowd.

Hopefully, you’re putting this into practice at your church. After all, your services are free (except for that offering plate), but that doesn’t mean “good enough” is good enough, right? You can invest in postcards, door hangers, billboards, and micro sites to promote your upcoming SEX series, and you just might attract a crowd. But if you don’t invest in your message (or the music, media, or childcare), the crowd won’t be back just because the service was free. In fact, the crowd may even start complain on their way out the door, which I’m sure the Twitter team would tell you is slightly embarrassing.

Regardless of what you charge for whatever it is you do, try to do it well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under The Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses to “The Twitter Blues”

like most, i too have a love / hate relationship with twitter. geez…

right now, me no likey. their I.T. needs to catch up.

carry on.

posted at 1:47 pm on May 27th, 2008 by Chad Jarnagin

I saw your little tweet about this post and decided to read it since I to have recently become an avid Twitter user.

I think it is a great lesson for the church to apply. Thanks for taking the time to write such a great article!

posted at 1:49 pm on May 27th, 2008 by Josh Tilton

Here Here!

Get it right, Twitter. Don’t make me go to Pownce!

posted at 2:25 pm on May 27th, 2008 by Clayton Bell

Great post!
I was so disappointed in Twitter last week. I have spread the twitter gospel to the edges of the universe only to be shot down by it’s server failures.

Twitter twitter chicken dinner…

posted at 3:16 pm on May 27th, 2008 by Kevin Mattison

Friend Feed!

posted at 4:14 pm on May 27th, 2008 by tyler

Great take on this. I totally concur.

posted at 11:12 pm on May 27th, 2008 by Terrace Crawford

Loving this post.

posted at 6:20 am on May 28th, 2008 by Jason

[…] I appreciate Collide Magazine’s thoughts on Twitter. Good thought, point to ponder. - Dilbert is still relevant and funny. (wonder if that’s a […]

posted at 6:58 am on May 28th, 2008 by Assorted items of interest

That was brilliant. Thank you.

posted at 7:23 am on May 28th, 2008 by Lex

ah, guys, this post isn’t about Twitter…

[remember when Jesus talked about mustard seeds, he actually was talking about the kingdom of God — it’s a parable or a metaphor]

Scott is obviously complaining about quality of service but I know he cares much more about the kindgom of God than Twitter. If you read this again, you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself if all of the things you provide to the public are worthy of their attention or are worthy of the name of Christ.

Brilliant post Scott - thanks.

posted at 9:40 am on May 28th, 2008 by JoeSindorf

Another lesson that is worth considering: Exploring new territory and experimenting is, well, risky. Pushing the boundaries in technology - and in ministry - can bring rewards and (more likely) failures.

Twitter started as one thing, the community started using it for something else, for which they weren’t prepared fully prepared (how could they, with the “start before you plan” approach?).

While I’m also frustrated with Twitter, the idea will settle and stabilize in time. Whether or not Twitter will be the one who executes it well remains to be seen.

I do admire them for “just doing it” - often ministry coasts on inertia and doesn’t try new things out of fear.

What are some things in ministry that were experimental once - and are now common practice? I remember when using an overhead projector was a big deal.

posted at 10:42 pm on May 28th, 2008 by Allan White

I’m a twitter fan, it’s irritating that the “older” function doesn’t work, and I totally agree that twitter will lose users in the next two weeks if they don’t fix.

posted at 6:45 am on May 29th, 2008 by Jesse Phillips

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