No, I am not leaving Twitter. Yet.  I will at least wait this one out.  And that wait, in my opinion, is getting shorter and shorter.

Before I get into any kind of facts or numbers I’ll just throw out some observations, which are completely not based on any solid fact or number.  Imagine that?

Over the last several months it looks as though the Twitterverse is slowing down.  This is based on what feels like a huge decrease in activity from my own personal followers and friends and way less mentions.  I know that you are probably thinking, “Well, then don’t put out terrible content.”  Ha.  This could be true, but what I am saying about it slowing down could also be true.

I have 350 followers.  Not huge, but a solid number made up of personal friends, business colleagues, industry experts and of course some randoms.  This group in the past had consistently been interactive and engaging.  Not so much anymore. I also follow many of these people, many of which barely even tweet now.  Just here and there, random updates.  Nothing like 2009-2011.  The entertainment factor of Twitter has taken a huge hit, at least for me, that’s for sure.

Now on to some numbers and facts.

A recent article by TechCrunch had some big news- Pinterest has now passed Twitter on the referral traffic generating scale.  In other words, Pinterest is now simply moving people around the web more than Twitter.  Businesses should take note.

The use has definitely declined by the tweeps on Twitter.  Mashable’s visual history of Twitter infograph lays out exactly that point.  150 million of the 200 million registered users do not log in to Twitter by day, and half of its registered users only log in once a month.  Of every 100 accounts, 20 are completely inactive, dead accounts.  And spammers?  Yeah, the accounts where people are following no one and also have no followers, and they mention you in a tweet with a random link?  Yeah.  Those. Are. Sweet.

Twitter isn’t exactly the log in once a month kind of social platform.  If you’re doing that, you’re kind of missing the point.

As I was thinking about this subject for a blog, I saw a Lowe’s TV commercial.  I found this very interesting and right on par with what I’m saying…at the end they flashed their social platform icons: Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.  No Twitter.  They do still have it on their website, but what does that say that they’d scrap Twitter from their social priorities to their television audience?  I think it says a lot.

There is also a flip-side to this argument, and Twitter is doing everything they can to keep it strong.  They recently launched brand pages for some hand-picked lucky companies to test out.  To be honest, at this point it isn’t much to get excited about.  Check out Coca-cola’s brand Twitter page; not really many bells and whistles.  There is space for a larger image or expanded video links with a thumbnail, and then a banner at the top where you can feature a hashtag or tagline.  Exciting.  Sarcasm.

Some folks do believe Twitter is doing more and more to enhance the brand pages.  I guess it’s yet to be seen, but simply upping the monetization of Twitter advertising doesn’t really cut it, in my opinion.

We’ll see.

I have always been a huge fan of Twitter and have it used it consistently for the last several years.  I completely believe in the power and virality of Twitter and absolutely love it from a business perspective for putting out news and updates, but that’s so one-sided.  However, with the ever-increasing “dead” accounts and spammers, and the decrease in use by the actually active accounts, it just seems to be moving in the wrong direction.  I will leave you with this last thought: Twitter will slowing fade away for personal, active users and will grow for businesses and celebrities.  People will simply follow along and it will continue to move in the direction of one-sided broadcasts as opposed to interaction and engagement.  This is an area where Facebook will leave Twitter in the dust in the year to come.