To further complicate things, Twitter’s most influential users do not tweet with the expectation that they’ll be heard only with the people who follow them directly. Rather, they treat the platform like it’s a one-way TV interview, using Twitter to break news, to win arguments, to build their brands, to hone their public personas. That’s because they understand that some of their tweets are likely to resonate far beyond Twitter.com and the Twitter app. The photo that Barack Obama tweeted when he won re-election was viewed by tens of millions of Americans who have never used Twitter. Ditto Ellen’s Oscars selfie.

Twitter’s active users then, are only the most easily measured portion of its audience. And the number of timelines people view on the site or app does not capture the service’s vast reach. Even if you’ve never signed up for Twitter, you’ve almost certainly been part of the audience for tweets, whether they’re displayed on television, quoted on the radio, or embedded in an article like this one. Whether you choose to or not, you’re likely to see more in the months and years to come. Yet you won’t show up in any of the metrics Wall Street is relying on to assess its growth.

That's true, but any reasonably big tweet (like the one above) we will see elsewhere.

Twitter is a lot of work for the amount of reward we get, and I think that might be the bigger issue.

Or to put it another way: Most people don't hang out there and don't want to hang out there.

Reddit is like an undertow while Twitter is like wetting your toes in the surf and then leaving to find your beach towel?

That should read:  If only Bradley's arm WERE longer.... (I can't help it.  I'm a grammar nerd.)

Tina, you're so right!

Geege good analogy.