Twitter is an interesting tool. Some people swear by it and some people can’t stand it. Regardless of your personal feelings about Twitter, it may be something you want to consider for your business. Michelle Carville posted an article on recent Twitter statistics that are sure to get you thinking about how to better use Twitter.
The original article can be found here, but we thought it was worth sharing some of the latest facts that are out there.
“Over the last 5 years –
- There are 200,000,000 registered Twitter users
- Almost 88% of people have awareness of Twitter and its existence
- There are 450,000 new Twitter accounts created everyday
- Meaning there are 5.2 accounts created every second of everyday
So we can longer claim that’s it unknown – there is a huge audience out there, right at your fingertips. That is a lot of people in a short space of time that have been convinced by its power.
- There are one billion tweets posted every week
- 180,000,000 everyday
- 138,888 every minute
- Over 1,650 every second
- Just 5% of Twitter users create 75% of the content tweeted
- There are 1.6 billion search queries everyday
- Meaning that there are 18,000 search queries every second
Still worried that you’re too old to be using it or that your brand or company is the wrong sort to be using twitter? Take a look at the numbers then…
- 46% of Twitter users are female
- 54% are male – very equal demographics
- 53% don’t have children
- 47% do have children – time doesn’t seem to be an issue
- The majority of twitter users are aged between 30 and 49 – perfect age group
- 43% of people follow a brand on Twitter for special deals/offers
- 75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow – good head-start
- 67% of users are likely to recommend a brand they follow to other users
Ok….but maybe you’re still worried about the freedom of speech that users have. The fact that anyone can write anything about you, your brand, your services or your skills…
- 1,000,000 people view tweets about customer service each week
- 80% of those tweets are negative and critical
- As much as 75% of traffic comes from sources outside Twitter
We’ll let you in on a secret – whether you have a twitter account or not people can write whatever they want, whenever they want – they will get heard and it will get commented on and it will get passed on. Surely it’s better to be listening in on those criticisms, dealing with them and changing things for the better. Let people know you’re listening. Or maybe you don’t have the time to be on twitter in the middle of the day and therefore think you would miss out on most activity anyway….
5pm is the best time to be re-tweeted.”
On top of those statistics, do you realize that the majority of media outlets are now using twitter to break news? Anytime a major story breaks, you can be sure that news outlets are covering it on twitter. Why? Because they know they have an active audience who are paying attention and will share.
So what does this mean for you? One great way that you can take advantage of Twitter is by connecting with media. On top of breaking news through Twitter, many reporters reach out to their connections and look for sources. You can position yourself as an expert of your field by responding to the reporter’s tweet and sharing your knowledge on news coverage. You can use Twitter to reach out to media in your local markets and even national reporters. The key is to be active and engaged with your connections.
Now that you have this plethora of information on Twitter, do you think you will start using it more?
