We’re used to users on Facebook revolting every time they make a change to anything. And recently we’ve started to see dissent towards the ecosystem changes Twitter has started to make.
Usually as services move towards the mainstream they start to change in order to accommodate new, more profitable, mainstream users. They usually upset the early adopters by getting rid of features the early adopters bought in on, or adding features that annoy early adopters but appease the mainstream user.
Early adopters are an important group because they can give a service the early foothold and buzz it needs to make the leap into the mainstream.
Hundreds of social networking startups have enjoyed early adopter success only to be abandoned as soon as a new, shinier object came along. Not among the least of these were well established social networks like MySpace and Digg. While there isn’t a shortage on bright and shiny objects none of them seem to be taking any gravitational pull away from Twitter or Facebook.
Those of us who have watched the migration from site to site can’t help but wonder if something else will come along and steal the early adopter crowd.
Yesterday I asked the following question on Quora: As Twitter & Facebook become more mainstream what social network will early adopters move to next?
From the 7 answers I received I put together the following answer summary:
While there doesn’t seem to be a reasonable option yet for this fickle crowd, some could see moving to light weight blogging services like Tumblr or Posterous, or niche services like Path, Instagram, PicPlz or Beluga (now owned by Facebook)
While 7 answers doesn’t provide the largest sample set out there, it does ring true with my own experience. While at times I may get frustrated with the changes made by Facebook and Twitter, I haven’t found anything better to move to yet. Some have dramatically deleted Facebook but they haven’t replaced it with anything else and they haven’t left Twitter. Maybe something else will come along but at this point I’m skeptical that even if something won the hearts of the early adopter that anything will stop their momentum with the mainstream.
What do you think? What would it take for the early adopters to leave Twitter and/or Facebook?
Photo credit by Tac Anderson
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