Home > Blog > 5 things Twitter should do in 2013

5 things Twitter should do in 2013December 23rd, 2012

I will say upfront, I love Twitter. It is truly amazing to see the sheer number of tweets when something big happens anywhere in the world. That being said, I would like to see some changes that I feel will make Twitter even better.

1. Get rid of (or alter) direct messages :: This has become nothing but auto response spam. “Thanks for the follow, blah blah”. This should just go, or make it so only certain people are allowed to send you a DM. Perhaps you have a list of close followers that have permission.
2. End the hatred :: As a US Company, Twitter should not allow anyone an account the US deems as a terrorist organization.  Seems like a no-brainer, but Twitter has become a place where these groups can disseminate their hateful rhetoric.  I am all for free speech, but if you are on the list of terrorist organizations you shouldn’t be able to use Twitter as your conduit.
3. Allow more automation :: Right now Twitter allows very little automation and mainly for good reasons.  But there are some things they allow, such as auto follow-back.  I would like to see this as part of Twitter with some intelligence built in. For instance, I would like to be able to follow back people in certain geographic areas, or with certain things in their profile, such as certain professions.  I would also like a setting that only follows English speaking accounts since that is the only language I am truly fluent.It would also be nice to be able to un-follow people who don’t follow you back or who meet certain criteria. For instance, I would un-follow anyone who tweets more than X times a day.  I would love to be able to auto follow people in certain geographic areas and perhaps certain professions.
4. Be able to sort hashtags :: It would be great to be able to sort your searches by a few more criteria. Currently there is Top, All, and People I follow. It would be great if you could sort by a location for instance. Perhaps i want to see the tweets of people in my state. I realize I can use operators in my search, but it would be easier if it were built into the interface, maybe you have advanced, next to the defaults or perhaps a way to set up the settings you choose similar to Google’s search settings.
5. Communication :: If there is one thing that Twitter, and other Social Media websites are bad about it is communication. if you want to call them, it is next to impossible. You have to send a note through their online form and a timely response is not forthcoming. I would love to see a live chat feature so you can discuss issues.

I think what makes social media sites great and hang around is the ability to adapt and add features that keep them relevant and interesting.  Hopefully twitter will continue to grow and not get stagnant.