I’m sure there’s lots of opportunity for Twitter. Real-time is its current strength. Here’s what I see:

Twitter is for connecting with people you don’t know in real life. But discovering, commenting and creating content on Twitter is far from good. It has seriously user experience problems.

Facebook lets people connect with their friends and family. Strangers aren’t welcome. It’s a personal space. Using Facebook is an outstanding experience. The interface and design encourages content consumption, interaction and creation. Liking, sharing and reading are all very high.

LinkedIn is oriented around work. Bullshit is high here, but connecting with strangers is between Facebook and Twitter on the acceptability scale. Everyone has an agenda.

LinkedIn is never going to become more personal. It’s entire userbase is focused around business.

Facebook has tried (with its mysterious ‘Follow’ option) to become less personal, but I’d argue it’s failed and will struggle to do so.

Twitter has the chance to be Facebook for people you don’t know (which is, by definition, most people). It just needs to sort out its UI so that it’s as inviting to browse and share as Facebook. It’s possible that they already see this with the change from ‘Favoriting’ to ‘Liking’ of Tweets, and the rumoured move to long-form content.

My focus at Twitter would be to move away from cliquey bullshit like Tweetstorms, .@ mentions, shortened URLs and the 140 character limit. I’d be heading towards thumbnail previews of links, inline comments, and a clear, untechnical user interface.