• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
1
 
Who’s Using Twitter, Why,and What You Should DoAbout It
 A strategic analysis of Twitter users--and how to reach them
 Anne Zieger & Christa Bradney 
 
 Anne Zieger & Christa Bradney 
Introduction
Over the last two years, Twitter has gone from being yet another obscure Internet technology to aformidable platform used by millions to socialize, share information, do business, collect businessintelligence and more. As happened with old-school blogs over the mid- to late 1990s, first Twitter was an insider hobby, then a well-known form of self-expression, and now it’s become an extremely powerful medium capable of exerting broad influence offline (see the “Motrin moms” case in our appendix).Today, not only are individuals conducting important business and personal activities online, majorcompanies are using Twitter to reach out as well. Increasingly, such corporate Twitterers as@ComcastCares, @HRBlock, @DunkinDonuts, @JetBlue and @Dell have established strong voices onTwitter, each with their own take on what the medium offers and how they can use it to establish stronger bonds with customers.Despite the growing popularity of Twitter, however, far too little is known about the nature of its users.Most of the statistics currently available focus largely on Twitter as a whole—or picayune details aboutusers that don’t offer much actionable information.For example, there’s data from Quancast from mid-April 2008 which concluded 200,000 peoplecurrently used the service per week, sending a collective 3 million tweets. (Given Twitter’s exponentialgrowth, we seriously doubt these statistics still apply as of early 2009, but they’re still worth noting.)Regardless, general network stats aren’t good enough, nor are generalities about their user profiles. AsTwitter comes into its maturity, it’s critical to develop a better understanding of individual Twitter users,not only their demographics but also their usage habits, attitudes and offline behavior and interests.
More importantly, it’s critical to start making some distinctions as to how marketers canand should interact with this critically important population.
Right now, many businesses are sticking their toe in the Twitter waters by establishing a corporate ID andlimiting themselves to basically saying “hi,” to this very sophisticated and demanding audience.(Typically, they’re linking this to a listless Facebook fan page or perhaps a poorly-thought-out Ning orLinkedIn group.) As you can imagine,
 we don’t think that approach offers much value.
 Only by developing a fuller picture of the Twitter user can marketers, PR professionals and othercommunicators truly leverage the amazing power of the tweet. That’s what we’re offering you today, notonly data, but strategic recommendations that can move your Twitter strategy to the next level.In this report, we will deliver the following data and analysis:* A portrait of the typical Twitter user, with detailed demographics and projections as to future directionsfor growth* A description of Twitter usage patterns, broken out by major user segments, and what that says abouttheir styles of Twitter usage2
 
 
* A discussion of Twitter users’ offline preferences and behavior, and how that should affect yourplanning* A list of the top 10 takeaways (including action steps) you can derive from this reportThis being a report about Twitter, we’d be remiss if we didn’t encourage you to tweet us along the way if  you have questions or comments. Drop us a note anytime at @annezieger or @rumford and we’ll respondas soon as we can. We also encourage you to comment on the blog entries which will accompany this report. While statisticsare fixed, the community is fluid, and we’re eager to get your responses as you absorb what you read here.Thank you for reading this report. Please retweet!- Anne Zieger, Editor
Portrait of the Typical Twitter User
First, the basics. Our quantative research involved two surveys looking at Twitter users and, their usagepatterns and their preferences (both on- and off-line). Theparticipants were self-selected based on several tweets and a largenumber of retweets that got reasonable exposure in theTwitterverse.
 Who Took The Survey?
Out of the 317 people surveyed, 161 of them were female and 156of them were male. Since the survey was announced by a male, itmay have become slightly moretweaked toward males. So we cansay that our “typical” user is female.The survey also showed a variety of ages, withthe most predominant age range being 30-39. It is interesting to note, however, thatthe 40-49 age range actually outnumberedthe 20-29 age range: this was an unexpectedresult for us, given the youthful profile of social media like Facebook.On the other hand, Facebook age rangeshave begun to skew upward over the last six months or so, so perhaps this is to be expected. And as you’llsee later, there’s an extremely strong overlap between Facebook and Twitter users.
Educated, 30-Something Professional Females
So, what do we have as your “standard” Twitter user? Our average user is female, and somewhere in the30-39 age range, with an income in the $50,000 to $70,000 range annually.It is highly likely that she has a college degree, as that wasoverwhelmingly the education level of thepeople that we surveyed.3
 
Gender
MaleFemale
76910186495
 Age Range
13-1920-2930-3940-49
Income Range
$0 to $30,000$30,000 to$50,000$50,000 to$70,000
 
Education Leve
High SchoolSome College
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...