Reducing Twitter Spam: Triberr’s Missed Marketing Opportunity

Let’s face it, Twitter has a spam problem, and over the last six months Triberr has been criticized as a source of that spam.

Triberr is a polarizing platform and automatic tweeting is Triberr’s lightning rod feature. Proponents applaud the easy exposure and traffic, detractors point to lower quality content being broadly shared and higher sharing volume. (For a great balanced review of Triberr, see Neal Schaffer’s (@nealschaffer) Review of Triberr.)

This week, it could have changed. On November 1, Triberr removed automatic tweeting. However, for all the discussion Triberr has created in the past, the silence that has followed has been deafening. No one is talking about the change and Triberr’s detractors are not even aware of it. [Disclaimer: Yes, this change improved my opinion of Triberr.]

Dino Dogan (@dino_dogan) and Dan Cristo (@dancristo), the founders of Triberr, have marketed it brilliantly through the passionate supporters they have won. However, many of those supporters were drawn to a lightening rod feature that is no longer available. These supporters are not going to get the new story out.

Here is what I believe Triberr needs to do now to build on this week’s improvement.

Get the Story Out

Triberr has a captive audience of bloggers, particularly bloggers that cover social media, and they potentially have a great story that addresses a key complaint about Triberr to date. It is time to tell the story about how this change improves Triberr.

Dan and Dino can use their privileged position as Triberr founders to help distribute their story through Triberr. Passionate supporters are not passionate about this change, Dan and Dino will need to do more of the work this time.

Offer Proof

Triberr’s history over the last six months has won them fans and detractors. If this is going to be a turning point for Triberr that allows them to win over detractors, the story needs to show their commitment. Here are places the change should be reflected:

  • Product Roadmap: The roadmap should reinforce Triberr is more than a way to syndicate your content through other people. For example, it needs to be easier to edit tweets and control the final tweet.
  • Positioning: “The Reach Multiplier” position is about about broadcasting, Triberr needs to reposition themselves, likely in content curation or social media management.
  • Social Media Integration: Today, Triberr has built a social media island. Tweets are sent through Triberr and cannot be easily managed along with the rest of your social media activity. Kristi Hines (@kikolani) has manually done some of this, explained in one of the best How I Use Triberr posts I have seen, but it needs to be far easier to do.

This is potentially a big change, and watching this unfold may be a very interesting case study of how a product moves from a niche position to mainstream.

Thanks to Susie Parker (@susie_parker) for encouraging me to write this post earlier this week. Update: Susie posted Why Triberr Needs to Carpe Diem with some great thoughts on Triberr.

Your Turn

Does removing automation change your opinion of Triberr? Are there other changes you believe Triberr needs to make? Share your views in the comments below (I’m sure Dan or Dino will take note) with with me on Twitter (@wittlake).

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