Rank: 2
How BIG is Twitter
250,000,000 unique monthly users
140 million active users
An average of 400 tweets sent per day
Average Time Per Month Spent by Users on Twitter: 170 minutes
It is the world’s most popular micro-blog, but “Twitter” rolls easier off the tongue. It may have a cute, catchy name but don’t fall into the trap of underestimating or discounting the power of Twitter as part of an effective marketing strategy.
Demographics:
The PEW Internet research survey revealed that Twitter has more than doubled since 2009 and users are split fairly evenly down the middle, 55% of users are Female and 45% are male. Surprising? Perhaps less surprising is that the dominant demographic group is described as “18-29 year old urbanites” – 30% of all Twitter users fit that description.
Twitter will always be fueled by engagement. Engagement statistics are the only ones marketers care about. So let’s talk about those…
How are the most successful brands engaging with their market using Twitter? The simple answer is with conversation and content. 92% of engagement with a Brand’s tweets are link clicks, and tweets that contain links receive 86% higher Retweet rates than those without.
Video and Twitter:
- Tweet it – If you have video content… tweet it! You just read that 92% of brand engagement are link clicks, so put video links in your tweets to increase engagement with your followers and drive traffic to your site or social media networks. Twitter is a fast, easy and effective way to generate video views and social interaction with your content. Videos spread fast, Twitter is a viral engine! Twitter users love sharing Youtube videos, at the rate of over 700 video tweets per minute!
- Hashtag it- Twitter can take credit for making ‘Hashtag’ part of our social dialogue and quickly a staple in our general lexicon. The Hashtag (#) is used to index information on Twitter using keyword and conversation topics. Your videos can be indexed and found based on associated keywords that you control. Search #video or #marketing and you’ll find all of the tweets that mention those keywords. To boost your buzz factor, use popular keywords and hashtag-phrases that are trending on Twitter, or start your own! #trendsetter
- Share it – People LOVE to share video on Twitter, so make it easy for them to take it viral! Place Twitter ‘share’ or ‘Tweet’ icons clearly beside (over or under) your video on your website, Youtube channels and other social sites. Once people watch your video, you give them something to Tweet about. Encourage them to interact by tweeting about it, or Retweeting your links.
You get the feeling that Twitter’s new kid on the block status is behind them – they are no longer the cooler, younger cousin to Facebook. Twitter will move into their next phase by continuing to be innovative, serving the younger demographic and offering greater conversation or brand engagement metrics than their competitors.
Number 2 ain’t bad, but a little bird told me that it ain’t satisfied with the status quo. You’ll see big things from Twitter as their user base grows along with demand for change. Twitter isn’t the fly by night concept (that most of us thought it would be!) – it has been a juggernaut in 140 characters for over 7 years, in large part due to the unique direct (and direct) conversation and sharing benefits it offers to brands.
Get your video content on Twitter and watch it soar. #marketersdream
*Next in our series ‘The Social Saga’: Linkedin… Facebook in a suit and tie
