Despite the initial success of Twitter’s IPO, it would seem that the ever-growing viral engagement that the social platform once commanded is slowing.  “We have massive global awareness of Twitter. [We] need to bridge that gap between awareness and engagement on the platform,” CEO Dick Costolo said during the Q&A portion of Twitter's earnings call.  

Costolo had predicted that 2013 would end with 400 million active users on Twitter.  However, Twitter ended 2013 with a relatively low 241 million.  For Twitter to reach this optimistic goal it has to transform further into something that is of use to people on a massively general scale, like Facebook.  

Lance Ulanoff, a writer for Mashable, suggests what he sees as the obvious next step for Twitter:  Twitter TV.  This makes sense, because Twitter is more often than not used as an information aggregate, something for people to consume, rather than an outlet or hub.  This parallels the way the public uses television, and the appearance of an internet service that melded the two could easily revolutionize both Twitter and TV.  

Making Twitter more public would be a good start — e.g., there would be no need to register to see public content such as news or celebrities. Viewers would be able to click on any link and email, copy or tweet links and embed those tweets wherever they want. They would have to join Twitter however if they wanted to follow, retweet, or tweet their own comments. This would be a fantastic way of receiving engagement even before getting the wanted members.  

For the full story from Mashable, click here.