Twitter FTW!
Seriously though, if you have been wondering why your client/boss/mother was asking “what is our Twitter strategy?” (despite your 17-24 audience being completely MIA from the platform) here is one answer. It’s our fault.
According to Nielsen Blogpulse, Twitter now gets a mention in 1.2% of all blog posts on the web. That’s 50% more than Facebook, and 4x more than MySpace.
This domination of our attention is despite the fact that Facebook is still:
- 5-10 times the size of Twitter (19 million users for Twitter.com vs 200 million users for Facebook, question is how many people only use Twitter via mobile or desktop apps and never the website)
- Making big headlines, like say hitting 200 million users, and making huge headway with older audience segments and international markets
- A much more viable marketing platform at this stage (in my opinion, anyway)
So what accounts for this obsession with our favourite micro-blogging platform?
For starters it’s the growth rate. Twitter grew a staggering 1382% in the U.S. last year. Even more scary, traffic to Twitter.com nearly doubled in March alone.
Then there’s the natural attention that all the celebrities are bringing to the party, especially the recent TV-friendly advocacy from Ashton and Oprah. Ashton went from 7,800 to one million twitters in less than three months.
The big question now is clearly “what next”? Is the celebrity endorsement poised to push Twitter into the mainstream? Or are we looking at the next Second Life?
It’s an unfair comparison in the sense that Twitter already has more penetration than Second Life ever did, but it’s reasonable in the sense that Second Life’s true near-term potential, especially as a marketing vehicle, was blown way out of proportion to any sense of reality.
But it made for great articles and TV, and the bandwagon grew, and then seemingly overnight everybody looked around and said “uh, what?” and that was that.
I suspect Twitter is not Second Life, mainly because it has hit a certain critical mass, is growing meteorically, is easy to use, and has a utility as well as entertainment value. However I’m still not sure it’s slightly overblown.
Here’s another couple of fun charts from Google Trends. Note that these following charts show search results instead of blog posts, which is a key and important difference as we’ll see in a sec.
This first one shows a couple things. First is that Twitter has gotten a lot more attention from people than Second Life ever did. Except that literally all of that attention has come in the last three months. Which maybe means “about to be mainstream” and maybe means “bubble”.
This second chart shows searches for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter:
Although Twitter has overtaken Facebook in both news references and blog posts, Facebook is still massively more popular in terms of what people are actually searching for on Google. It’s an interesting comparison, although possibly this can be slightly explained away by way of illustrating how terrible Facebook’s search engine is. Although on the other hand, it correlates nicely with Facebook’s real usage vs Twitter.
So there is your buzz showdown concluded, with Twitter taking the victory despite Facebook coming in as the heavily favoured incumbent. Let’s visit again in 6 months for a rematch. Though at that point who knows, Twitter may be part of Facebook.
Last question for the debate, and I’m asking this seriously because I’m not sure I get it: why couldn’t Facebook’s status updates simply replace Twitter?
- You already have your whole social graph set up on Facebook.
- There are permissions controlling who sees what.
- It’s where you manage all the rest of your social life, including photos, events, etc.
- There is a rich development platform allowing Facebook to be used for all sorts of things
- The same people and brands that are getting on Twitter to promote things are also building their own branded Facebook pages. Which have status updates, just like Twitter. But also a ton of other functionality.
I scratch my head a bit about this. Twitter is definitely fully optimized to do one thing well, but it just seems easier for Facebook to replace Twitter than vice-versa. And so the question is whether the tens of millions of people already on Facebook would simply use Facebook to do their status updates / twitterings, or whether they really do need a new platform in Twitter. Does it all come down to volume control, and is Facebook simply not good enough at this?
Curious to hear your thoughts!
Subscribe to *supercollider for original research and insight goodness
I’ve wondered about Twitter’s viability with Facebook already so entrenched and doing what appears to be the same thing. However, it’s still red hot in terms of growth and media plugs, that I’m beginning to wonder if I’m wrong. I’m conidering setting up on Twitter to see what all the buzz is about.
I would only consider Twitter an advertising tool in a very broad sense. Twitter is a self-serving advertising platform being misused more than anything else. Do I think the world is wondering what I am doing every second of the day…NO! Do I think it could be used to target member groups I setup (think Delta Medallion Club) where they get tweets about specials my client(s) are running…YES!!!
According to the Peer Analytics Group showed how only 8.7% of observed tweets were worthy of telling others while 40% are useless babble.
Twitter is somewhat of a fad that has taken hold in mainstream America so it is hyped at the moment. Only successful advertising campaigns will decide if its roots are deep enough to survive as a dotcom marketing venue or if it will wither away.
Good points, but most digital photographs and cell phone conversations are useless noise, and that hasn’t stopped those markets from taking off. My guess is that anything that makes people feel connected, no matter how superficialLy, will find some niche.
Keep in mind you are also comparing products (cell and dig. photos) items supported by brick and mortar stores to an online only service.
In the end history has shown an interactive community (Facebook) will dominate from a marketability standpoint. Being more marketable generally means more revenue. Unless Twitter continues to evolve and expand they are going to be stuck in a bubble waiting to burst. If the expand and grow they might eclipse Facebook the same way Facebook eclipsed Myspace.
Twitter is not going anywhere in the near future. My personal opinion is that Twitter won’t be able to sustain its meteoric rise without further development.
The electrical conduction system has the electrostatic field.
Once I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the identical comment. Is there any means you’ll be able to take away me from that service? Thanks!
Thanks for your article on Lexus SUV RX 450h. I learn something today. Do you have more detailed specifications on the car?
Oh, a great piece of text! No idea how you wrote this article..it’d take me long hours. Well worth it though, I’d suspect. Have you considered selling ads on your blog?
Hello guys I simply wanted to stop by your site and check in so I could drop my link. I wish that you find our content as useful as I did yours! We happen to be a hands on sort of operation, so if you have any concerns concerning our products please let us realize!
Hi persons I just wanted to stop by your blog site as well as check in so I can drop my back link. I hope that you discover our composition as useful as I did yours! We happen to be a hands on kind of operation, so if you have any sort of concerns regarding our products gratify let us know!
Hey persons I simply would like to stop by your blog site as well as check in so I may drop my back link. I wish that you locate our subject matter as practical as I did yours! We are a hands on type of operation, so if you have any sort of concerns concerning our services satisfy let us recognize!
spouses forecasting singhiiweb startblogger personalised sports freiberg expiration hkjus relinquished misspelling
2012 goal for the year: read more web sites like this
Spot on with this write-up, I truly think this website wants far more consideration. I’ll most likely be again to read way more, thanks for that info.
An attention-grabbing discussion is value comment. I believe that you should write more on this topic, it may not be a taboo topic but typically individuals are not sufficient to talk on such topics. To the next. Cheers
This web site is known as a walk-via for all of the data you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse right here, and you’ll undoubtedly discover it.
I do not even know how I stopped up here, but I thought this submit was once good. I do not understand who you’re but certainly you are going to a well-known blogger should you are not already
Cheers!
There is obviously a lott to know about ths. I really didnt have a clue. Keep working ,great jop.
nice post i was wondering if you would be able to get in contact with me a few things about your site it is very well done and i would like to know how to make the top section the way you did
What an excellent description! I have no clue how you wrote this text..it’d take me long hours. Well worth it though, I’d suspect. Have you considered selling banners on your blog?
without a broader planning with bondholders, supplementary that it was “perfectly exceptionable that this vast amount of Hellenic
debt that ties the state collaborator and beat should be dealt with by both unnamed and hide technocrats and unelected people.”
demonstrators threw Solon cocktails, mounting criticism to writer than 40 buildings, including a historic theatre in downtown Town, the last casualty in the municipality since May 2011, when ternion people were killed when protesters firebombed a funds.
Awesome read ! I will be returning and exploring out this blog again Continue the dedication goin.
I actually wanted to make a brief word in order to thank you for all of the fantastic pointers you are writing at this website. My time-consuming internet lookup has finally been honored with wonderful information to go over with my contacts. I would assert that we visitors actually are undoubtedly fortunate to exist in a fabulous community with many wonderful professionals with beneficial tricks. I feel rather privileged to have discovered the web site and look forward to some more brilliant minutes reading here. Thanks a lot again for a lot of things.
These became fantastic repeatedly physical exercises whereby assists you to remove all the backbone as well as sleep thoroughly without the go through in regard to stress of your repeatedly.
gostei muito do blog!!! acontece que nao estou conseguindo adicionar o seu RSS no meu leitor, me retorna um erro 404!!
Its like you learn my thoughts! You seem to understand a lot about this, like you wrote the ebook in it or something. I think that you simply could do with a few percent to drive the message house a little bit, however instead of that, that is excellent blog. An excellent read. I’ll certainly be back.
You can buy real twitter followers from http://terrasell.net with only $30 - 10,000 followers. 24h Delivery with no password needed. Can’t get any better than that:)
Discover to write himself, the post from an additional source
I do love the way you have presented this particular problem and it does indeed give me personally a lot of fodder for consideration. Nevertheless, from just what I have witnessed, I simply just wish as other feedback stack on that people today keep on issue and don’t get started upon a soap box regarding the news of the day. Still, thank you for this exceptional point and even though I can not really concur with this in totality, I regard your perspective.
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It if truth be told was a entertainment account it. Glance advanced to more delivered agreeable from you! By the way, how can we keep up a correspondence?
Strivection lists deionized water 1st. Following which are some key moisturizing ingredients like sesame oil and sweet almond oil. Following those is an ingredient that’s listed like this: “Striadril complicated (consisting of Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-3).”
Maybe the whole country and its people will collapse down into a pit.
Awesome post, I appreciate you writing this post. I will contine to read your blog regularly from now on! Appreciate it.
Wonderful items from you, man. I’ve have in mind your stuff previous to and you’re simply extremely great. I really like what you have obtained right here, really like what you are stating and the best way during which you say it. You are making it enjoyable and you still care for to stay it sensible. I can not wait to read far more from you. This is actually a tremendous site.
Thank you for any other informative web site. The place else may just I am getting that type of info written in such a perfect method? I have a challenge that I’m simply now working on, and I have been at the glance out for such information.
Thanks , I have just been searching for information about this topic for a long time and yours is the best I have came upon so far. But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you sure about the supply?