Does the New Data Make Twitter Less Relevant to Marketers?
Posted June 10th, 2009 by RickBurnes
HubSpot's State of the Twittersphere report shows that many Twitter users don't use their accounts that much. Does this mean that Twitter is not the powerful marketing channel that so many people now assume it is?
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State of the Twittersphere
Clay Posey 2 years 48 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago
I can't help but think that the raw stats might be a little skewed. Bots make up profiles to spam, promote porn sites, etc. They often have no profile & no pic. Teens adn Tweens jump on and jump off liek rabbits. These are not the folks we need to connect with.
The twittersphere is ripe for the picking with low hanging fruit if you know hwere to look. Search twitter for people who are posting about relevant content for you. Look for the folks who are tweeting in your world (you might learn something, I have) and perhaps more importantly, look for people who are tweeting about your customer's world.
Use tools like tweetdeck to organize your thoughts and to regularly follow certain search terms. Tweet valuable stuff and get retweeted and replied to (this does amazing things for your twitter handle in SEO).
AND, track your conversions. If you tweet about something on your site, use a trackable link shortening service, like budURL so you can
a) customize the link name i.e. budurl.com/myblog to help your click throughs by giving folks a clue about what to expect.
b) follow how many folks click on your link. It doesn't hurt to have a call to action when they get to that page either.
Using the right tools can make twitter one if the easiest and most relevant tools you have out there!
Less Relevant? Nope.
Dave Lowe 2 years 48 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago
The report does show that many users are not active, but I feel like that's missing the point.
The issue with Twitter is that it puts forth little effort to entertain it's users. Straight forward bio, link, and tweets. This produces an active user base of driven people who really took the time to learn the system. Facebook is extremely customizable and interactive right off the bat, users can edit profiles, update pictures, and edit statuses. This means that, while Facebook may have less inactive users, the general population is much less involved in sharing relevant information and adding value to the community.
This all shows that those users who have taken the time to become comfortable with the service are HIGHLY involved and interested in what's going on. You essentially have a giant community of hyper-connected people, marketers best case scenario.
This doesn't make twitter
Brian Rogers 2 years 49 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago
This doesn't make twitter less relevant at all. It is still a great medium for one to many communication where people can easily subscribe. I would encourage to allow people to subscribe to a blog via email, RSS, and twitter (let them know what account to follow and post your blog updated there too).
Also, for podcasts and video and other form of live media twitter is still very useful. Look at HubSpot TV... twitter provides a great method for Karen and Mike to receive comments when live on the air.
It is also to be expected to see this, as the comments have mentioned. There is a definite fad around twitter with all the celebs and news shows using it, so many people will 'jump on the band wagon' but not be active. In time, their user base will mature, and as I mentioned, it is still a great method for 1 to many communication.
Twitter More Relevant Than Ever
Prashant Kaw 2 years 49 weeks 3 days 5 min ago
I think a lot of people jumped on Twitter with the celebrities because it was the thing to do but real adoption will happen when they actually get it -- it will take some time.
Twitter is about conversations, sharing and community -- it will remain relevant as ever because it has proven very useful.
No, i think twitter is still
Dan Zarrella 2 years 49 weeks 3 days 14 min ago
No, i think twitter is still very useful to marketers. I think the key takeaway for marketers with this report is that they may have to do a little education in and around their twitter-based calls to action.
Meaning if a CO wants people to follow them on twitter, they'll probably need to explain how twitter works and what following is.