In what’s becoming all but a rare move, micro blogging giant Twitter has announced that it will make changes in it’s Terms of Service; clearly an attempt to eliminate users who they consider to be detracting value from their network…
“The refreshed Twitter Rules that are a part of the new Terms of Service spell out a number of different reasons why you may find your Twitter account terminated.”
-Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable
What we are beginning to see is a networking conundrum whereby networking sites gain traction via loose networks and minimal restrictions and then gradually shift gears in the opposite direction.
In other words, in the beginning of a business networking site’s life cycle, the following reasons are often given for why they are great marketing tools:
- Number of new accounts
- Ease in which to get large number of followers/friends/connections
- Unlimited ability to target potential customers, promote yourself, and your brand
Like Facebook and Linked In, when Twitter reaches a certain mass, it then becomes more advantageous for the site to limit and control network expansion.
So if the free-for-all nature of Twitter made it very appealing for early adopters, an equal and opposite force will be necessary to ensure it doesn’t go the way of MySpace.
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