What People Are Twittering About

Over the last 6 months I have gone from “Twitter is a fad” to “Maybe there is something to this thing”.  As those who know me know, I don’t rush to the latest thing and I look cautiously to new technologies — I guess after doing this for 10 years through the bubble and bust I’ve gotten a bit cynical.  This new data from eMarketer (link) breaks down what people are using Twitter for and helps paint the picture of this strange new communication platform.

This profile of what is being Tweeted is a bit different than what I have experienced.  I would have thought the self-promotion would have been much higher as every blogger (including myself) and more and more businesses are blurbing out promotional tweets.  The catagory “Pointless Babble” leads me to believe that Twitter is being used as a real social platform by real people talking to real people.    Note that 37% of tweets are people talking to each other that are not just RTs (re-tweets).  RTs made up only 8.7% in the “Pass along” catagory.  From my experience there is a lot more self-promotion and a lot more Re-tweets.

I’ve recently participated in a Twitter event that we used as a promotional communication vehicle.  The results were very impressive as we gathered hundred’s of consumers together for several hours to talk about our products.  I found the Twitter audience to be very engaged and enthusiastic about directly communicating with the brand.  I’m still not sure how this thing will evolve but the data and my experience with this event is pushing me to believe that there is something to this Twitter thing.

Emarketer

Check out these latest stats from eMarketer (link).  As marketers it sometimes feels like we are chasing the latest fad only to be dazzled by the latest-latest fad.  And I think for many of us “Social Networking” is just the latest shiny thing.  For those that do feel that way it’s time to wake up.  Social Networking is not a fade to gloss over.  The numbers tell the tale.  If you’re not geared up to leverage this communication channel than move aside.

Thoughts:

• Social Networking on the internet is NOT NEW!  Social Networking has always been the fuel that grew this beast.  Email, Newsgroups, Message Boards, Chat, Forums, Homepages, Web rings, File sharing, the list goes on and on were all forms of SocNet that has now become main stream.
• Now is the time to build your permission based marketing channel.  Email is dead.  You need to be channeling your consumers through a process that builds up your Facebook and Twitter lists.  It’s not “sexy” but it is a list of consumers that want to hear from you!
• How do you measure SocNet?  There is only one measurement — cash.  Your SocNet campaigns need to drive incremental sales by driving traffic to retail and earning additional merchandising space.  SocNet can do that through creative campaigns that leverage your retail partners exclusive assets.
• Access to information provided by your peers will continue to permeate  into every medium.  How will your product stand up against instant user feedback available to anyone during the purchase decision.

Where Who Is

Here’s another great data point from eMarketer (link):

Gen Z = 13 to 14

Gen Y = 15 to 29

Gen X = 30 to 44

So this is saying of the Gen Y’s that use Soc Net sites 65% of them use Facebook.