04/17/2009
This is the follow-up to my recent State of Twitter Part 1 post, in which I talked about the growth of Twitter, its proliferation in the media, and my decision to give it a try.
Along with my previous post, I conducted a survey about Twitter to over 1,500 participants.
This post is to report the results of the survey, along with my observations and a few opinions throughout.
The participants were mostly members of my Eric’s Tips newsletter. However, I also publicized it to my facebook friends, and it was re-tweeted by a few people which brought in some diversity as well.
But overall, I’d say that 80-90% of the participants were Internet marketers and aspiring entrepreneurs.
There were 927 Twitterers and 610 non-Twitterers.
I started by asking the Twitterers some basic questions about their use of Twitter:
How long have you been a Twitter user? 927 responses (Twitter users)
less than 1 month 193 (20.8%)
1-6 months 465 (50%)
6-12 months 181 (19.5%)
1 year or more 92 (9.9%)
How often do you tweet on average? 920 responses (Twitter users)
Once a day or less 648 (70.4%)
2-10 times a day 234 (25.4%)
More than 10 times a day 38 (4.1%)
I found it interesting that over 70% of respondents are only tweeting once a day or less. On the one hand I found it somewhat refreshing that my readers aren’t all raging twit-a-holics, but I wonder whether that’s too infrequent to really engage your followers and make your Twittering worthwhile.
On average, how much time do you spend twittering per day? (both tweeting and reading) 922 responses (Twitter users)
less than 5 minutes 385 (41.8%)
5 – 10 minutes 239 (25.9%)
10 – 30 minutes 180 (19.5%)
Over 30 minutes 118 (12.8%)
Lack of time is probably the reason why most respondents only tweet once a day or less. On the other hand, 118 respondents are spending over 30 minutes a day twittering… that’s a serious commitment. And I think if everyone really kept track of exactly how much time they spent on Twitter-related activities, it would be more minutes than they estimated.
Why do you use Twitter? 917 responses (Twitter users)
Solely for business purposes 288 (31.4%)
Solely for personal/social reasons 108 (11.8%)
Mostly for business with some social 350 (38.2%)
Mostly for social with some business 171 (18.6%)
No surprises here. I fully expected this audience to be slanted toward business in their use of Twitter. And indeed 88% are using it for at least some business purposes.
On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you enjoy using Twitter? 920 responses (Twitter users)
1 – I hate it 40 (4.3%)
2 – Somewhat dislike it 107 (11.6%)
3 – It’s OK 406 (44.1%)
4 – I like it 248 (27.0%)
5 – I love it 119 (12.9%)
Alright, so not all Twitter users are in love with tweeting, but very few hate it.
For the non-Twitterers, I wanted to know why they weren’t using Twitter, and whether they were paying attention to it…
What is the main reason you don’t use Twitter? 610 responses (Non-Twitter users)
I tried it and didn’t like it 22 (3.6%)
I’m not familiar with it 272 (44.6%)
Don’t see enough benefit 121 (19.8%)
Don’t like the format 23 (3.8%)
Not enough time 172 (28.2%)
I was expecting a higher percent to have tried Twitter and quit it (qwitters), but apparently it has a fairly low abandonment rate among marketers. The “not enough time” folks (28.2%) seem to support my theory as to why so many Twitterers tweet as infrequently as they do. But the biggest stat here is the number of respondents who were not familiar with Twitter (44.6%)… and keep in mind that this survey was conducted almost exclusively to an Internet-savvy crowd. This just shows that Twitter is still in the process of breaking into the mainstream and has not yet reached the public consciousness like facebook has. If you were to survey random people on the street, even fewer would know about Twitter. But in another year or two it could be as common as google (hey Twitter’s name has already become a verb, that’s a good sign)… we’ll see.
Do you read other people’s Twitter pages? 595 responses (Non-Twitter users)
Yes – frequently 2 (0.3%)
Yes – occasionally 106 (17.8%)
No 487 (81.8%)
Note to marketers: Twitter is only effective for reaching other Twitterers. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why many Twittering marketers are passionate about evangelizing for Twitter?
Next I asked several questions about FOLLOWING, because it seems to be the hot topic right now. In fact, last night Ashton Kutcher and CNN became the first users to surpass 1,000,000 followers on Twitter, and others will pass the mark in the coming days.
Some people are embracing the competitive aspect of gaining followers, while others are shunning it. A rising contingency is even speculating on whether Twitter should remove the follower count. I personally doubt Twitter will remove the follower count, because it’s getting a lot of publicity for Twitter and it’s driving new users to them. However, I think a viable option would be for them to give users an option to HIDE their followers. I would actually like that.
How many followers do you have? 923 responses (Twitter users)
0-100 483 (52.3%)
101-500 243 (26.3%)
501-1000 97 (10.5%)
1001-5000 86 (9.3%)
More than 5000 14 (1.5%)
This one surprised me a little because it seems like everyone and their mother has thousands of followers. But it appears that those are just the ones who are getting all the attention, while the average Twitter user has a pretty small following. According to Joel Comm’s book Twitter Power, you only need 80 followers to be in the top 10% of all Twitter users.
How many people are YOU following? 924 responses (Twitter users)
0-100 514 (55.6%)
101-500 215 (23.3%)
501-1000 78 (8.4%)
1001-5000 108 (11.7%)
More than 5000 9 (1%)
So I wanted to know if they were actually paying attention to the people they were following…
Seriously, do you pay attention to the tweets of the people you’re following? 925 responses (Twitter users)
Yes I read all of them. 84 (9.1%)
I read over half of them. 188 (20.3%)
I read less than half of them. 336 (36.3%)
No, I read few or none of them. 317 (34.3%)
Of course I got some flak for the way the question was worded. And admittedly I wanted to support my theory that most Twitter users aren’t paying attention. But now that I’ve immersed myself in Twitter in recent weeks, I’ve come to a better understanding that you’re simply not expected to pay attention to everyone you’re following.
If you’re following thousands of people, it’s physically impossible to read every tweet unless you make it a full time job. And even if you’re following a modest number of folks, it may be too overwhelming to read all their tweets.
Instead, I think the basic concept employed by most users is to glance at the stream of tweets coming from your followers, to sort of “take a pulse”, and to interact as time permits. In observing several popular Twitter users, it seems they pay the most attention to their “@ replies”, and are much more likely to respond to an @ reply than to get involved with random tweets.
So next I asked the question that I was really burning to ask.
Are the majority of Twitter users really follower-whores? Are they all pursuing a big following to stroke their own egos? OK, I didn’t word it quite like that…
Out of the following, which is your biggest priority for your Twitter account? 895 responses (Twitter users)
Gaining a lot of followers 88 (9.8%)
Gaining targeted followers 359 (40.1%)
Building relationships 448 (50.1%)
This one blew me away. I really thought more people would be primarily interested in growing the size of their following. Either I have a bunch of humble people on my list, or a bunch of smart marketers.
So I asked a few more questions to help quantify their interest in each of those priorities:
On a scale of 1-5, how important to you is gaining a HIGH QUANTITY of followers? 913 responses (Twitter users)
1- not important at all 150 (16.4%)
2 – slightly important 170 (18.6%)
3 – somewhat important 214 (23.4%)
4 – important 220 (24.1%)
5 – very important 159 (17.4%)
On a scale of 1-5, how important to you is it to gain TARGETED followers? 915 responses (Twitter users)
1 – not important at all 68 (7.4%)
2 – slightly important 59 (6.4%)
3 – somewhat important 124 (13.6%)
4 – important 251 (27.4%)
5 – very important 413 (45.1%)
On a scale of 1-5, how important to you is it to build real relationships on Twitter? 921 responses (Twitter users)
1 – not important at all 76 (8.3%)
2 – slightly important 107 (11.6%)
3 – somewhat important 232 (25.2%)
4 – important 279 (30.3%)
5 – very important 227 (24.6%)
So from those three questions, I found that while a lot of people do place a significant amount of importance on gaining followers, the respondents truly consider relationship building and gaining targeted followers to be of higher priority.
So I asked one more question to make sure I really knew where their heart was on the matter…
Which is more important to you? 904 responses (Twitter users)
Making money from your followers 416 (46.0%)
Building true friendships with followers 488 (54.0%)
OK, so that one could have been sort of a trick question. I’m sure some people picked building friendships because they’re relationship marketers who realize that making a friend is the best way to make a sale. But still, I’d say chalk another one up for the “twitterers are not all money hungry bastards” side. Apparently people who get involved in Twitter ARE the type of people who like to build relationships and make new friends.
I asked the non-Twitterers a related question to see if their perception of Twitterers would match up with the truth…
Which of the following statements about Twitter users would you most strongly agree with? 610 responses (Non-Twitter users)
They are vain and conceited 37 (6.1%)
They are mostly marketers 80 (13.1%)
They are sociable people 117 (19.2%)
They are cooler than me 4 (0.7%)
I have no opinion about them 372 (61.0%)
Interestingly, out of those who had an opinion, the results do match up with the claims of the Twitter users. The most commonly held opinion was “They are sociable people,” and that seems to be fairly accurate.
Does that mean that the non-Twitterers are less sociable? I asked a question to find out…
Which is more important to you regarding your ONLINE activity? 593 responses (Non-Twitter users)
Making money 496 (83.6%)
Building true friendships 97 (16.4%)
Now in fairness, I should have asked the Twitter users the same question. But clearly, the non-Twitter users are much more interested in making money than in making friends online.
And the big asterisk here is *online. In other words, this doesn’t necessarily mean the non-Twitter users aren’t sociable people (although they might not be as sociable, as I explain later). It just means they use the Internet more as a money making tool than a relationship building platform. I would fit into that category. It’s not that I value money over friendships, or that I’m an anti-social person. But the reason I spend so much time online is primarily to make money. And admittedly, I’m probably less social than the average Twitter fanatic (*more on this in the conclusion of this article).
Next, I wanted to know how Twitter users felt about “following back” and “auto-following” your followers…
What percent of your followers do you follow back? 911 responses (Twitter users)
I follow most or all of them 387 (42.5%)
I follow over 50% of them 215 (23.6%)
I follow between 10%-50% of them 136 (14.9%)
I follow less than 10% of them 173 (19.0%)
How do you feel about “auto following”? 915 responses (Twitter users)
It’s fine as long as it’s not abused 320 (35.0%)
It’s OK, but I don’t like it 221 (24.2%)
I hate it 70 (7.7%)
I don’t know what auto following is 304 (33.2%)
Do you use an “auto follow” tool? 916 responses (Twitter users)
Yes 132 (14.4%)
No 784 (85.6%)
The above is perhaps the most controversial topic when it comes to using Twitter for marketing purposes. One school of thought is that following all your followers is good for reasons including…
– You’re better able to interact with them
– You’re not perceived as a Twitter snob
– You gain a valuable stream of marketing/research data at your fingertips
And it seems that the majority of respondents in my survey would agree with that standpoint. 66.1 percent of the Twitter users are following over half of their followers, and 42.5% are following almost all of them. Furthermore, a solid 14.4% are using auto-follow tools.
Such auto-follow tools are despised by critics of “gaining followers for the sake of growing a big list of followers”. One of the most eloquent arguments AGAINST auto-following was posted by an Internet marketing colleague that I respect, Michel Fortin, in his blog post: Drones and fakes, and in a follow-up blog post responding to a critic.
Overall, I’m admittedly still on the fence regarding the issue. I can certainly see the negative aspects of auto-following including how it has the potential to ruin Twitter as a marketing tool (as was explained nicely by Michel). But I also see the benefits of following your followers, which is why I’ve chosen to follow most of my followers for now.
(By the way, there ARE a lot of drones and fakes on Twitter… I think I have about 20 followers using Alex Mandossian’s picture.)
I would also like to throw one additional argument into the mix, that I haven’t seen listed among the popular reasons for or against auto-following.
I’m calling my argument the “status symbol mutual benefit”.
Many Twitter users who follow each other are essentially mutually agreeing to give each other the benefit of inflating the other person’s follower count by 1 follower. Therefore I would not consider them to be “fake” following. They both realize that they’re not really going to be friends. And actually, Twitter doesn’t refer to your followers as friends, so I don’t think the “not true friends” argument holds weight anyway…
Does this result in each participant’s list of followers being diluted and thus less valuable? Yes. And as those users repeat the process and add thousands of other auto-followers, they continue to dilute their list. BUT… it’s a list nonetheless. It’s a status symbol.
Is it shallow? Yes. Is it egotistical? Most likely yes. But do status symbols hold a place in our society? Yes they do.
The status-symbol-seeker’s list itself may be completely unresponsive and full of similarly minded list-building Twitterers (along with plenty of drones and fakes), which means it won’t be very useful from a marketing standpoint. But having tens of thousands of followers is currently a status symbol (like it or not), and it could open other doors of opportunity. A non-celebrity with 200,000 Twitter followers today would be considered a web 2.0 genius by a lot of people, EVEN IF their followers are mostly “fakes”.
Fortunately, the value of Twitter accounts as status symbols will soon decline and most likely drop off the map. Why? It will happen for one of two reasons…
1) If Twitter leaves things as they are, hundreds of thousands of users will eventually have millions of followers. Think about it. All that the auto-follow people need to do is devise a good system of congregating and following each other (it’s already happened to an extent). At that point, ANYONE can essentially grow their account as fast as Twitter will let them grow it. OK, so then the “status symbol” will become having a lot of followers without following a lot of people. No problem, we can game that too. All of the auto-follow people can just register a couple extra accounts, and set up a systematic “ring” of one-way followers.
2) Since the above is inevitable if things stay the same, Twitter will most likely make some changes to prevent it from destroying their business.
OK, so that’s my contribution to the auto-follow debate. Let’s move on to the rest of the survey…
First, some evidence that big Twitter accounts are not really so much of a status symbol anyway. I asked the non-Twitterers…
Are you impressed by people who have thousands of Twitter followers? 609 responses (Non-Twitter users)
yes 111 (18.2%)
no 270 (44.3%)
not sure 228 (37.4%)
As you can see, the average person is not too impressed by it anyway. I’m sure that this sentiment will only increase as large Twitter accounts become ever more common.
I also wanted to know how the non-Twitterers perceived the value of the content being tweeted on Twitter…
What is your impression of the content that people post on Twitter (tweets)? 601 responses (Non-Twitter users)
It’s mostly insignificant 154 (25.6%)
It’s interesting but not valuable 73 (12.1%)
It’s mostly valuable information 22 (3.7%)
It’s mostly spam 18 (3.0%)
I don’t know 334 (55.6%)
Well again, the biggest response was from those who are clueless about Twitter (55.6%). But among those who had an opinion, the majority believed that most tweets are insignificant.
Interestingly, their perception is probably correct… and it’s not a bad thing. It appears that the insignificant “mundane” things are a big part of what makes Twitter enjoyable for its users.
Yesterday my friend Joel Comm made a blog post called Twitter and a Box of Donuts, in which he explains why mundane tweets may be essential in building a successful Twitter following.
Next I asked several of the same questions to both the Twitterers and non-Twitter users, to see how they differed in their opinions about Twitter…
Which statement do you most strongly agree with?
| Twitter users (905 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (602 responses) |
Combined (1507 responses) |
|
| Twitter is truly a great social networking tool | 619 (68.4%) | 108 (17.9%) | 727 (48.2%) |
| Twitter is mainly good for marketers | 286 (31.6%) | 79 (13.1%) | 365 (24.2%) |
| I don’t know | N/A | 415 (68.9%) | 415 (27.5%) |
What do you think is Twitter’s greatest contribution to the world?
| Twitter users (906 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (598 responses) |
Combined (1504 responses) |
|
| Being a social platform | 403 (44.5%) | 208 (34.8%) | 611 (40.6%) |
| Being a marketing platform | 220 (24.3%) | 65 (10.9%) | 365 (18.9%) |
| Being a news/information platform | 283 (31.2%) | 57 (9.5%) | 340 (22.6%) |
| I don’t know | N/A | 268 (44.8%) | 268 (17.8%) |
How often do you use Twitter’s search function to get news or information?
| Twitter users (914 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (589 responses) |
Combined (1503 responses) |
|
| Daily or more often | 104 (11.4%) | 2 (0.3%) | 106 (7.0%) |
| Usually once a week or more | 155 (17.0%) | 12 (2.0%) | 167 (11.1%) |
| Not very often | 327 (35.8%) | 70 (11.9%) | 397 (26.4%) |
| Never | 328 (35.9%) | 505 (85.7%) | 833 (55.4%) |
Where do you think Twitter will be 2 years from now in regard to its usefulness and value to the web?
| Twitter users (920 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (586 responses) |
Combined (1506 responses) |
|
| Pretty much the same, just bigger | 290 (31.5%) | 253 (43.2%) | 543 (36.0%) |
| Will be more important than it is now | 460 (50.0%) | 172 (29.4%) | 632 (42.0%) |
| Will be less important than it is now | 170 (18.5%) | 161 (27.5%) | 397 (22.0%) |
Really no surprises in those answers. Those who use Twitter are more likely to have a positive outlook for its future, and more likely to get their news from it. Many of those who choose to not use Twitter are banking on the possibility that it will fade into oblivion (or at least a position of less relevance).
Next I asked a couple of questions to help determine how both sets of respondents perceived the value of Twitter compared to other methods of online list building, and whether they were willing to pay for it…
Which would you prefer to have if you could have just one of the following?
| Twitter users (914 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (587 responses) |
Combined (1501 responses) |
|
| 5000 Twitter followers | 120 (13.1%) | 50 (8.5%) | 106 (11.3%) |
| 5000 blog RSS readers | 118 (12.9%) | 65 (11.1%) | 167 (12.2%) |
| 5000 email subscribers (double opt in) | 642 (70.2%) | 439 (74.8%) | 1081 (72.0%) |
| 5000 facebook friends | 34 (3.7%) | 33 (5.6%) | 67 (4.5%) |
If you could buy real followers, how much would you pay for 10,000 followers?
| Twitter users (905 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (589 responses) |
Combined (1494 responses) |
|
| $0 | 382 (42.2%) | 278 (47.2%) | 660 (44.2%) |
| $1 – $100 | 340 (37.6%) | 199 (33.8%) | 539 (36.0%) |
| $101 – $1000 | 142 (15.7%) | 85 (14.4%) | 227 (15.2%) |
| $1001 – $5000 | 24 (2.7%) | 13 (2.2%) | 37 (2.5%) |
| $5000 – $10,000 | 5 (0.6%) | 8 (1.4%) | 13 (0.9%) |
| More than $10,000 | 12 (1.3%) | 6 (1.0%) | 18 (1.2%) |
The overwhelming majority of both sides of the party agreed that it is most valuable to have an opt-in list of email subscribers. The value of a Twitter follower seemed to be somewhat comparable to the value of a blog RSS subscriber.
Neither party was willing to pay much of a premium for Twitter followers either. Almost half of respondents wouldn’t be willing to pay a single dollar for 10,000 Twitter followers. As I alluded to earlier, I believe the value of Twitter followers will continue to decline, particularly if the practice of auto-following continues.
If there were a solid demand for Twitter followers, it could probably support a small cottage industry. Similar to overseas World of Warcraft farms (and other online games), a team of workers could easily build Twitter accounts with massive followings for resale.
In such case, people could buy accounts with enough followers to give themselves “instant Twitter celebrity status”. But as I mentioned, the status of Twitter accounts seems to be quickly fading, and it does not appear that there is much of a market for it.
On the other hand, I am interested in the 31 respondents who said they would pay over $5,000 for 10,000 Twitter followers. That just might be enough demand for someone to make a profitable business of Twitter farming. If targeted followings could be built and resold, it could be akin to buying co-reg email opt-in lists.
The last question I asked the combined group was related to their overall online marketing and social networking activities…
Which of the following do you currently have?
| Twitter users (920 responses) |
Non-Twitter users (600 responses) |
Combined (1520 responses) |
|
| a blog | 683 (74.2%) | 246 (41.0%) | 929 (61.1%) |
| email opt-in list | 430 (46.7%) | 170 (28.3%) | 600 (39.5%) |
| facebook account | 711 (77.3%) | 228 (38.0%) | 939 (61.8%) |
| myspace account | 417 (45.3%) | 117 (19.5%) | 534 (35.1%) |
| youtube account | 574 (62.4%) | 182 (30.3%) | 756 (49.7%) |
| other video site account(s) | 181 (19.7%) | 48 (8.0%) | 229 (15.1%) |
| flickr account | 269 (29.2%) | 52 (8.7%) | 321 (21.1%) |
| other photo site account(s) | 147 (16.0%) | 54 (9.0%) | 201 (13.2%) |
| LinkedIn account | 426 (46.3%) | 90 (15.0%) | 516 (33.9%) |
| Xanga account | 61 (6.6%) | 9 (1.5%) | 70 (4.6%) |
| Bebo account | 82 (8.9%) | 10 (1.7%) | 92 (6.1%) |
| Friendster account | 92 (10.0%) | 19 (3.2%) | 111 (7.3%) |
| Orkut account | 56 (6.1%) | 4 (0.7%) | 60 (3.9%) |
| Hi5 account | 83 (9.0%) | 26 (4.3%) | 109 (7.2%) |
| Other social networking account(s) | 410 (44.6%) | 137 (22.8%) | 547 (36.0%) |
I found the above data to be VERY interesting. Across the board, the Twitter users were at least twice as likely to be involved in other social networking activities online.
I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising, since it only supports our other data which indicated that Twitter users are more interested in building relationships online. But even facebook was no exception. The Twitter users were more than twice as likely to have a facebook account. And some of the numbers were even more extreme…
The Twitter users were more than THREE times as likely to have an account at LinkedIn, Xanga, Bebo, Friendster, Orkut… and even Flickr!
I mean, I thought Flickr was for anyone who likes to upload their photos? Apparently it appeals much more to the social crowd. I also found it interesting that the non-Twitter users were more likely to host their photos somewhere other than Flickr. When I wrote the question, I had in mind Picasa… but now that I think of it, those non-Twitter folks are probably using sites like Kodak Easyshare and Snapfish… sites that are more mainstream, and too commercial for the social folks.
The Youtube number also surprised me a bit. I would expect that 99.9% of respondents have watched a video on Youtube, but I was impressed that 62.4% of Twitter users actually had a Youtube account. After all, you don’t need to have an account to view videos. You only need an account if you’re using it for social networking (to be friends/fans of other users), or for uploading your own videos.
So I wanted to see what other kinds of tools the Twitter users were using…
Which of the following tools/apps do you use? 920 responses (Twitter users)
Tweetdeck 261 (28.4%)
Power Twitter 50 (5.4%)
Twitpwr 59 (6.4%)
bit.ly or any other shortener 121 (13.2%)
TweetLater 171 (18.6%)
twitpic 103 (11.2%)
Twitturly 16 (1.7%)
Twistori 8 (0.9%)
TwitterLocal 45 (4.9%)
any Twitter-related iphone app 36 (3.9%)
any Twitter-related WordPress plugin 106 (11.5%)
twitterfeed 75 (8.2%)
twhirl 98 (10.7%)
Twitterfox 62 (6.7%)
Other free app (yes I know there are hundreds) 198 (21.5%)
An app that you paid money for 22 (2.4%)
No surprise that the ever-popular Tweetdeck came out on top. I was a little surprised that more Twitter users weren’t using iphone apps for Twitter (3.9%). I mean, doesn’t it seem like Twitter users are the iphone type?
And only 2.4% had paid for a Twitter app. This would indicate to me that the market for paid Twitter apps is not very big yet. It would also support the notion that the Twitter users are not willing to put their money on the line for Twitter, even though most of them are using it for business purposes.
This could make it difficult for Twitter to successfully monetize itself through paid accounts, due to lack of participation. And again, keep in mind that my survey group consisted mainly of marketers, who are probably MORE likely to invest in it than the average user.
On the other hand, it may only take a tiny percentage to paid users to make it profitable. One study showed that 3.7% of flicker’s members had upgraded to the Pro account. Suppose Twitter grew to have 50X as many accounts as Flickr… maybe they could be wildly profitable with less than 1% paid accounts?
Lastly I wanted to find out some vital stats in regard to using Twitter for business…
How many visitors to your website (s) do you receive from Twitter? 920 responses (Twitter users)
None 307 (33.4%)
1-10 per day 285 (31.0%)
10-100 per day 107 (11.6%)
101-500 per day 12 (1.3%)
More than 500 per day 5 (0.5%)
I don’t know or don’t have a website 204 (22.2%)
How much money do you make as a direct result of Twitter? 917 responses (Twitter users)
None 606 (66.1%)
$1 – $100 per month 137 (14.9%)
$101 – $500 per month 28 (3.1%)
$501 – $2000 per month 11 (1.2%)
Over $2000 per month 2 (0.2%)
Unknown 133 (14.5%)
According to these numbers, I would say that Twitter IS a viable source of both web traffic, and income. However, most Twitter users have not yet seen those benefits.
I do wonder what the results would look like if we were to do a more in depth study specifically on the effectiveness of Twitter for marketing. For this reason, I’m doing some joint research with Joel Comm, which we will most likely be releasing to the public in the coming weeks. You can be sure it will be a balanced view, as Joel is a steadfast supporter of Twitter, while I’m a bit of a perma-skeptic.
So what’s my personal conclusion?
On January 3rd, 2008, I wrote a post expressing my opinion that Twitter was probably not the best use of time for most marketers.
Then in my previous blog post (April 7, 2009), I said “I’m not issuing an official retraction of my stance on Twitter… YET. But that day might be coming soon.”
So am I ready to issue a retraction now that I’ve gotten involved in Twitter and done this research?
No I’m not. I still stand by what I wrote in January 2008.
First, here are some quotes from that article in which I supported Twitter…
“For those who are spending their time on “social activities” anyway, Twitter can be a more efficient way to do it.”
“Email deliverability is at an all-time low, and a service such as Twitter could be just the ticket to growing a highly responsive list of followers.”
“Friends are worth infinitely more than money, and in that regard social networking is a way to leverage the internet to gain a wealth of friends.”
I still agree with those points. But the main intention of that article was to ask the question…
Does Twitter provide a good return on investment for your time?
And that’s still my question today.
For some marketers, the answer will be “yes”. For others, it will be “no”.
Perhaps I need to put some special emphasis on one word in that sentence…
Does Twitter provide a good return on investment for YOUR time?
The most hardcore of Twitter supporters may argue that those who haven’t yet realized a good “Twitter ROI” simply aren’t doing it right, or that they haven’t reached that level yet.
And for some Twitter users, that would be correct. Obviously we’re still learning about the power of Twitter, and even among Internet marketers, many have not yet tried it.
But I’m not convinced that Twitter is for everyone, and my reasoning actually boils down to an innate human characteristic rather than merely return on investment.
Here’s an analogy to set up the claim I’m about to make…
Sylvie Fortin likens Twitter to a big “cocktail party”.
Are cocktail parties good networking opportunities for doing business? Certainly. And I’ve done plenty of good networking at cocktail parties…
BUT… I sure wouldn’t want to go to a cocktail party EVERY DAY. Especially not a big one… and especially not one as big as Twitter.
I get tired out when I spend time in big groups. It’s overwhelming to my senses.
I’d much rather have a few people over to my house for dinner.
But some people WOULD like to go to cocktail parties every night. They are highly social people. Those people thrive on it, and their brain can handle the simultaneous connections. My brain tends to get overloaded. I have a one-track mind, and I am not good at multi-tasking.
I’ve seen some research lately to support the theory that Twitter is not good for everyone.
According to researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang,
“For some kinds of thought, especially moral decision-making about other people’s social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and reflection.”
In other words, our brain may not be designed to build relationships the way they are built on Twitter (maybe Twitter users’ brains have evolved? LOL). But seriously, that’s coming from scientists, not from me.
But I speak for myself personally when I say that spending a lot of time on the Internet, and constantly being bombarded by its data, can dull your moral compass. In that regard, Twitter’s constant stream of information is sort of like the Internet on steroids. I’m not saying it’s turned me into an immoral person, but it does affect my thoughts and attitudes.
One way I would describe it is that I’ve felt “weird” after spending a lot of time on Twitter. It sort of puts me in a state of mind that I don’t like to be in.
But obviously, not everyone reacts that way, which is why Twitter seems to be a better fit for some people than others.
Again, diehard Twitter supporters might say that I still don’t “get it.”
Man, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen that phrase used in regard to Twitter.
I get it. I really do. I used to not get it, but after spending time on Twitter and researching it, I get it.
There’s such a distinct faction of people who “get it” vs. those who don’t, that it reminds me of the Emperor’s New Clothes (maybe not the best analogy). Those who are the Twitter insiders see its value, and most who are on the outside fail to see its value.
But I see its value, and I understand how the value is derived. I get it.
This might be the most politically correct and secularly tolerant thing I’ve ever said on this blog, but here’s my conclusion:
Do what feels right for you.
If Twitter is working for you, and you like it, then it’s a great tool for you to use.
If you haven’t tried Twitter, consider giving it a try.
If you’ve tried it and hate it, maybe you and Twitter are not the best fit.
Where does that leave me?
As an Internet marketing teacher, I’m in a unique position. It’s vital for marketers to “stay ahead of the curve”. And since Twitter may prove to be an important tool over the long run, I think it’s important for me to stay involved so that I can inform marketers about it.
I probably won’t tweet very often, and I won’t engage in many conversations. I realize that such an approach will dramatically decrease the effectiveness of my Twitter account. However, I prefer to focus my time on the two-way conversations that I have with my true followers here on my blog.
I understand the power of building relationships on the web as a marketing strategy. I’ve made a lot of money as a result of it…
But I prefer to have my friends meet me here in my own “home” where I control the conversation, rather than in a raging cocktail party with a million conversations going on at once.
Call me an old fashioned blogger 😉
What are your thoughts about Twitter, and/or the results of my survey? Please leave your comments below.
Have a great day!
Hi Eric!
Great job doing the research and crunching the numbers. I recently did my own little research among my kids and friends and what I discovered was.
My kids and their friends twitter an average of 3 to 4 times a day somtimes more they like twitter for its’ simplicity, it’s like text messaging without the cost.
Among my friends that twitter use it strickly for business purposes. They say it’s a quick and convient way of stay in touch with business partners, their list, and support staff when they don’t have access to a computer.
I believe as more and more people begin to discover the beauty and simplicity of twitter, it will eventually become the number one bookmark medium on the web.
Eric,
There is a lot of useful information here. I have a Twitter account, but I don’t go there much. One reason is lack of time. The other is not sure it would be worth my time right now. That, of course, could change in the future so I’ll keep my account open.
As for which is a better use of time, blogging or twittering, I think I would rather put my efforts into blogging. I think it would build a more targetted list and would be less time consuming, too. I also think it would be a whole lot easier to form a relationship with my readers.
Nice blog site, also. Thank you for the set up.
Wow, probably more than I thought I need to know about the state of “Twitter”, never the less very interesting and informative. Regarding Ashton Kutcher have seen posts where Billboards asking please follow Ashton Kutcher where in some places, also that as the count got close to a million you couldn’t unfollow if you wanted to.
Personally I think it was a PR stunt and not David vs Goliath nor a blow for the little guy.But then I never cared for “PUNK’D”.
Eric, thanks for all the info in this post. It made some interesting reading.
There has been a bit of a stink here in Australia about the use of twitter by celebrities. Hugh Jackman was caught out when he had someone write his tweet for him. In the tweet it said Opera Center instead of (Sydney) Opera House.
As he is from Australia it is obvious that he would know not to call the Sydney Opera House the Opera center. At first he blamed it on a translator in a blackberry, then the truth came out that he did not even write the tweet…
Well done on compiling a lot of useful data. I am probably best classed as anti twitter as I really have never seen a use for it. I did follow several big name marketers for a while and can actually say I never saw anything in their twitters that was even remotely interesting. I hate social networking anyway so I would not be a good judge but my personal experience suggests that what is put on many twitters is complete and utter crap. I have kept my account to have a look every now and then but several months have passed and I cannot see any reason to keep it.
Very thorough job, Eric, and lots of food for thought. I need to think a lot more about it than possible after a ‘quick’ read of your survey.
I did tweet the link.
Keep up the good work.
Great suvey! Being that Twitter is relativaly new and catching on fast… I’d like to see a comparison to this next year at this time… With time and circumstance, I sure Twitter will be ever changing…
Eric,
I think you should consider selling this report to Twitter owners.It could help them improve it.
You did really a serious research.
Well done
Eric,
Great bit of work there! I have to say I use Twitter a bit different. I know that most of my followers do not follow my Tweets…Most don’t even answer when I @tweet them. DM is the only way to get a response from the busiest and even then only if it is “worthy”. I set up my Tweets on my websites, blog, and social sites as a quick easy way for me to shoot quick messages out to anyone interested in what I’m doing, whether they are on Twitter or not. I don’t worry about who’s following me or following them back. It’s just another tool to keep in touch that is quick, simple and to the point and can be displayed anywhere.
Twitter is still a mystery to me. Thanks Eric for this in depth survey. Where I come from it takes more than 140 characters to build a relationship. But like you said, if it’s working for some than more power to them. Keep up the good work.
Your work is amazing! Thanks a lot for this valuable research project!
I use Twitter, I even made some money, however, it seems rather inflated to me and I am not really sure that I will stay for a long time.
After all of your results and surveys, I think you essentially came to the same conclusion that I came to a long time ago.
Again, I think that Twitter is great on a small scale…but there is absolutely no way to truly converse on this type of platform. I feel like everyone is shouting sometimes and I can’t hear a thing.
My very very very small niche Twitter accounts are fun…and the posts are easy to follow. People aren’t posting 1000 times per day. On the other hand, when I turn on my Tweet Deck for my IM Twitter account, it beeps a million times a minute (exageration, somewhat). I get lost and don’t have a clue what people are talking about or who’s responding to who or anything. It’s insane…and I don’t even have that many followers (by choice).
Thanks for sharing the results. I found them very interesting, mostly because I feel that your followers are very much the same type of people that you yourself are and the results you shared actually showed that they would prefer to respond to you in a real conversation on your blog rather than having their posts get lost on your Twitter??? Do ya think???
Eric,
This is some great stuff and a great jumping off point for more data to be gathered. I would actually be interested in helping you get this published by adding more data to it.
I would like to go out among the common every day person and give them the same survey. Like Ride the Public Transportation Rail for a day and gather responses.
I have some services that would probably want this data, if more info was added to it, to make it a little more scientific. As a marketer and a writer, I would be very interested in helping you get this published.
But at any rate, it’s definitely some useful info for anyone who uses it properly. Thanks.
I hate to say this, but at first, I think I felt like you did Ron… But now, when I see comments like this, I realize they are made out of lack of understanding…
So are you saying you did use Twitter and now don’t because you dislike the premise behind it?
Twitter and any other social networking website can be optimized to help you find more customers, to help you retain customers, monitor your brand and create more loyalty…
If you are not automating many of these processes, then you are probably wasting time as a business… Also as a business, the main reason to be on any social media site, should not be to directly make money from it.
Indirectly, you will make and keep more money, but if that is your sole purpose for being in the social marketing world, then I think you are really missing the boat of what social media is all about.
Phew – No wonder it took you a while to make your next post, Eric. 🙂 That’s a heck of a lot of data!
Great work on the survey and the analysis. I think more was sid by the frequent mention of the “get it” versus “Don’t get it” factions thna by anything else. Twitter has become more of a status symbol and a toy for those who earn their living elsewhere than a useful tool … in my book. So in that sense “i don’t get it” and am happy with that status. I’ll jeep my account but don’t ever expect to spend much time there … unless and until someone comes up with a way to effectively commuicate with people whom I actually know or who know me. Interesting how many political and show business figures are jumping on board, becuase that’s one of Twitter’s real strangth .. to talk “at” thousands of people rather thna to talk “with” anyone of value.
I am surprised how many don’t seem to care how flawed Twitters service is and how the ill-designed archirtecture is constantly poised on the brink of disaister. All these ‘auto follow’ schemes mathematically lead to equations that include fatorial numbers … I’m disappointed especially in the founders and operators of Twitter for being so computer-science illiterate. There are way to build huge communications networks, Twitter ain’t one of them.
http://en.gravatar.com/ All you need to know is there.
Great survey, it must have taken hours to compile. I got a lot out of it and will read through it more than once to get all I can from the information.
One problem I have with the blog is that if I ask you about ‘doing ABC’ to increase my income all the zillions here have shared in an idea I may wish to keep to myself. I am a minnow in a big pond and don’t want to get eaten. I do understand that your time is valuable and you can’t justify answering each query.
Please keep up the good work and lessons. May God bless you and your family,
Bob
WOW! I agree twitter is not for everybody. For me it was a matter of picking a social networking tool and learning it well. I have now settled into a grove that works. My goal was to drive traffic to my blog and I have seen a big increase coming directly from twitter.
I like the links I find on twitter and I like sharing links I find…such as this post.I have made some pretty good friends.
I am very picky about who I follow there is no sense in communicating with some one when we have nothing in common.
I have yet to market an actual product…that is coming up so we will see.
Oh, by the way did you use a plug in like polldaddy to take do this survey?
Thanks Eric you did a thorough job – as always.
Thank you Eric for a wonderful job with the survey!!! I took it too!! I like Twitter and reading most of the profiles of people that follow me, but I don’t like the auto tweets that some put on repetedly. I have found many interesting people on Twitter and am truly interested in what they say. I only can hope that my followers find value in my tweets.
Again, Eric, you are great!!
And I will follow you if you follow me- as they say on Twitter!!!! lol
Thanks for sharing these results and your conclusions Eric!
I’ll certainly be doing a tweet to mention this post for you.
🙂
@mattgarrett
Hi Eric,
Many thanks for your considered research into Twitter. I read the results with avid interest.
As a person new to Twitter – I definitely “don’t get it” – I find it a bunch of useless conversations which are meaningless for example “I’m going to bed now” – well tell someone who damn well cares!!!
I find I can’t get a decent conversation streams happening where people can ask a question and have others put in their 2cents worth and then be able to see and read the pearls of wisdom as a result.
It’s just a matter of garbage nonsense rather than a decent conversation.
Give me a decent conversation anyday to the useless raves that Tweeters undertake.
Many thanks,
Desley
Hello Eric,
That’s a great survey which you have conducted & can imagine the time, effort & commitment to write & post the amazing results. Waiting for what you have next about twittering together with Joel. Thanks & cheers..
I’ve been using Twitter for a short while now & gaining followers daily.
Still trying it out as a marketing tool for my blog. I haven’t really started any serious marketing yet only to get people interested in my profile.
Speaking of Twitter, just yesterday I learned about a new tool called Twitter Karma that allows you to bulk follow and unfollow people based on whether or not they are following you. I blogged about it at
http://tinyurl.com/d3w36k
The #1 Twitter for 1mm followers Adam Kusher or AKA #1 Twit is a perfect fit and title.:)
Relationships built on endless mecahanical cacophony for status has a short sided shelf life.Thoughtless instant gradification is the new “ism” that will need a 12 step when used as a crutch to conceal and distort authenticity for personal vainity. Wait till it’s used against us from the dark side. It will be an all new kind of cyber attack like the parable of a frog in warm water.
Hi! As usually when you do something you put a lot of work and serious consideration into it! That was a hell of a survey.
My opinion is the results are a lot influenced by the audience which are erictips students sort of speak, what include a lot of newbies, and the proof is your audience have 920 twitters and 600 non-twitters. What answers you expect from the 600 non-twitters, I think they without intention corrupt the final results and incline on the negative part of it.
You should:
1) analyze only the 920 twitters or
2) make the survey available via twitter.
Now I don’t say that we should tweet all day long, but I don’t say ignore it! This is my experience, I have close to 2000 followers gathered in 2 month, I cannot gather 2000 new people vie aweber in 2 month, do you?. They are all targeted!? they are not, the real test will be when I’ll launch the project I am working on now, at that point I’ll see the balance targeted vs. not targeted.
On other hand, doesn’t matter which Web 2.0 application you use, all of them are very, very time consuming when you want to use them to produce earnings. I cannot say is wrong to use precious time on Twitter but is not the same in Squidoo, HubPages Second Life, etc
Free traffic with Web 2.0 Applications is time consuming, period!
Thanks for you hard work with this survey
Michaela
Hi Eric,
Phew and wow are the two exclamation I have for you for creating this survey and then compiling such a thorough observation and conclusion. In deed you are second to none in your thorough work so far. It only reflects you professionalism in internet marketing, I am proud to be associated with you and have constantly recommended friends to subscribe to your newsletters.
Cheers and to your success.
Justin
Eric… great job. Just tweeted a reference to this post. Nuf said. WOW.
I hate auto-follow because there’s too many drones and fakes following me, I’ve had a fake Frank Kern and people pretending to be other major internet marketers, those people, while I allow them to follow me, people pretending to be major internet marketers are the only people I absolutely refuse to follow back, other than that, I try to follow everyone else back, but if they comment on politics in their tweets and it’s obvious they’re not qualified to comment on the sub-issues regarding the political commentary, therefore their comment turns out to be an ignorant one (very common with liberals), than I won’t follow those people back either or anyone else who gives me a bad first impression (which happens less than half the time because most twitter users I come across don’t talk politics very often).
Hi Justin,
To each his own. If you like socializing – more power to you – twitter to your hearts content. As I stated above – I simply do not like it. It wastes time when I could be doing something far more useful and profitable.
Thankfully there are a lot of ways to make money online. I have tried many – some work for me and others do not. What I was trying to say in my first comment is: My advice is to look inside yourself. Ask yourself whether you are the type of person who likes to visit social sites several times a day and do all the stuff it takes to get a following. If the answer is yes – go for it. If the answer is no – forget about it. Life is too short to do stuff you do not like doing. For the record – twitter is on the news all the time now – when I first signed up – hardly anyone had even heard of it. I do not care how big it gets or how much back end money it can earn. I know myself. I know what makes me happy and what frustrates me. Social networks frustrate me.
Rarely, do I comment in a blog – in fact Eric is the only blog I ever comment on – other than my own blogs. It just happens to be a lazy Saturday and I am all caught up with my work for the week – that rarely happens.
I am signing off now and I likely will not comment again for a long long time. Reason? Next week is coming and it will be busy.
Ron
WoW!! Thanks Eric! That was really helpful.
I’m on Twitter and was really wondering all that stuff, but couldn’t even articulate it. I am definitely going to share this link with others.
Faye
@Wildwriter
What a detailed report, Eric. I’m not completely sold on Twitter but I do Tweet occasionally mostly to promote my blogs and articles. i am looking forward to your joint report with Loel.
What a detailed report, Eric. I’m not completely sold on Twitter but I do Tweet occasionally mostly to promote my blogs and articles. i am looking forward to your joint report with Joel.
Hi Eric
Hard work Eric! You have done a great research!
I hope to have more time when i have my both feet on the internet marketing you are teaaching in Eric’s tips. Than i can learn the features of twitter and use to drive traffic to my website!
I couldn’t agree with you more , Ron. I firmly believe that far too many people are wasting a lot of valuable time on all these social sites.
I am 55 years old and have had a very interesting life without Twitter or Facebook,etc. I moderate a 6 year old Yahoo group of 320 members for networking purposes.
Effective marketing can be done far better without wasting time with all these “social” sites. After all, the idea is to make money fast, not waste your time hanging around sites like Twitter.
Your Group 2 comment prompted me to reply.
Robert
I believe just like anything that’s brand new the word has to get around that it is great and a possible avenue of marketing. Twitter is getting publicity and soon will gain momentun in the public eyes and ears. I belive it just a matter of time before Twitter is just like MySpace or YouTube.
Great job, Eric. Thanks for all your hard work. I’m sure you will find many rewards for your efforts!
Blessings,
Irene
Hi Eric,
I applaud you for taking the time and energy to conduct your interesting survey. I would like to provide some comments which are not meant to be critical but help to shed additional light on the topic of Twitter.
I also challenge the usefulness of using Twitter to gain social interactions and potential sales until I obtain more representative information. I believe everyone realizes that surveys are always skewed in favor of the audience being surveyed.
I believe that in order for a survey to be representative of a heterogeneous group of individuals that use the Twitter service, the survey should include a fairly large cross-sectional view of individuals. These individuals should be those people that utilize the product/service being surveyed and not just the individuals on a specific individual’s mailing or product sale list that created the survey. In your survey, you did not specify where you obtained the 1,500 participants. I assume, right or wrong, it was limited to your own lists.
Personally, I believe it’s too early to “call any shots” about the current or future usefulness of Twitter. More time is needed before someone “rings the bell” regarding the usefulness of Twitter from an Internet marketing point of view.
To my limited knowledge, the founders of Twitter have not yet decided how to monetize their free service but some enterprising entrepreneurs are quickly gaining a foothold on monetizing their “followers” but not the list of “following” individuals. I’ve only been using Twitter for a short time but it has grown one of my product lists by over 1,000 opt-ins. I can happily say the list is growing daily. These are targeted individual opt-ins that I hope to monetize in the near future.
Eric, I think your survey was an excellent start at exploring what may turn out to be a fantastic service/product. As always, time will tell.
Congratulations on presenting an eye-opening view on Twitter.
My best regards,
Terry
Eric, great post. As other’s have said, you’ve put a lot of work into this. I appreciate it. I’m a tweeter that’s learned to ride the wave…I check out what’s being said by those who matter to me, and scan the others. And no, I don’t follow everybody. Sometimes I tweet, sometimes I don’t. But I enjoy the interaction — I just control how much I participate, just like I would at a cocktail party.
Keep posting good information and I will keep reading.
Julia
@LadyJR
Great survey Eric lots of good and useful information. I was surprised at how many people were able to monetized twitter from just 140 character messages guess I might have to give another look. I also noticed that over 70% valued an email list over everything else, but less than 50% have one. So I hope in the near future you may do a video on how to add an information form box to a website. Thanks for all your hard work and great information.
I can relate to the weird feeling you mentioned. Twitter seems to be a bit like Vegas; Its great and exciting for a while, then everything starts to look exactly the same, and you begin to feel rather unproductive. But for the high-rollers and headliners, its a regular gig.
Very thorough survey. More thorough than many that I have seen in the corporate world. I agree with your observations.
I disagree with Justin’s second post.
I don’t question that such relationships can be “real”, but it’s a valid concern how it will affect our overall relationship building in the long run. It reminds me of Wall-e the movie.
the red arrows on your gravatar are not a bad idea. It made me stop and read your comment.
Thanks!
Outstanding contribution to the internet community Eric! I’ve spent a good number of hours on twitter over the last month and I’ve gotten dozens of links to sites that offered exactly what I needed in my business and all of it was free. Does twitter have a pulse? Your survey found a healthy sign of one I believe.
Hi Greg,
I’ve been waiting for somebody to question the “relationships online” myth.
Personally I don’t believe there are any “communities” online or “online relationships”.
These sites are actually ant-social as they keep you indoors, alone “communicating” with people who may not even exist.
To me social sites are a way to try to get income. I use many different alias’, both male and female, young and old, just to get into a particular market.
Nobody is my “friend” and I never read messages from anyone.
Like the majority of marketers, I would imagine, social sites are just a ‘pool of suckers, ripe for the plucking’.
Well done, interesting statistics. Powerful, I see many meaningful uses for Twitter and other social media vehicles as a result of your findings. Thank you for sharing.