The State of Twitter: Thriving but Not for Everyone
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!
Wow Eric! That’s a lot of work. Compiling all that data.
At the end of the day, the herd gets slaughtered so a few can feed upon it. That’s Twitter for you. Soon, we will have something else.
Thanks Chris, yes it was a lot of work
This post/ survey is huge! It must have taken a lot of work. Thanks for that insight.
I have to say, I’m a bit relieved - I was overwhelmed by Twitter and dreading getting any further into it. How does anyone keep up with all those tweets or whatever they’re called. I might put it off for a little longer now.
Thanks for the post.
Thanks Melissa. I was a bit relieved by my own conclusion as well. But some people have no problem riding on top of the Twitter wave, and for them it’s a great method of communication.
Really, nice slice of info
Thanks for sharing the data so that we can make informed decisions on how it will work in our lives and businesses. You do share a lot and it is really appreciated. off to write an article…
Eric you not only put a lot of work into it you did something that no one else thought of. It was alittle hard looking at all the data and numbers. You have a good baseline to do a survey a year from now. Do you think a magazine might want to publish your survey? Would google like a copy?
hmm, not a bad idea, thanks. A magazine, perhaps. Google on the other hand already owns all the data in the world
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.
Thanks Eric for the thorough work. Useful info, indeed.
Excellent work Eric! Very comprehensive… and super interesting. On many of the questions, I would have never guessed the top answers.
Keep up the good work… you’ve got one of the best services on the net
Eric, you already have an E-book here. Welldone!
THAT is an impressive piece of work Eric. I’m going to have to review it a few more times to get my brain around it. Did you Tweet it too? Really man it is awesome.
Is a “public” conversation really a social relationship? Call me old fashioned (not just an old fashioned blogger )… but I question how “social” a public conversation is, and what the long term consequences are of such “relationships” on people’s ability to truly form “long term” deep friendships and relationships.
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.
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’.
Eric:
Thanks for a great slice of information. You took a lot of time putting this together - I salute you.
Thanks!
PS: With every now “Hot” thing, people tend to forget it was built for communication purposes and not “gathering” followers.
Thanks for sharing this - you’ve put together an incredibly complete analysis. Great info.
the red arrows on your gravatar are not a bad idea. It made me stop and read your comment.
While twitter is certainly an interesting concept, and I have used it, it is by no means going to become a primary means of social interation or marketing anytime in the near future.
Too much spam and useless drivel. I prefer to stay focused on reliable means of getting targeted visitors to my sites so I can share valuable information with them and actually teach them and help them become successful.
Hi Eric, Thanks for posting the results of your survey! It appears there was a fair bit of work involved. Nice job on your analysis too. In the back of my mind I felt this way, but it is gratifying to see someone validate a feeling. Keep up the great work!
I loved the article…thanks for the great info!!!
I never tried tweeting, I’m not very socialable in big crowds in life or online…Well, I do like to play WoW.
I don’t think I’ll try tweeting any time soon, I find big social crowds overwelming.
Hey Eric,
You really put a lot of work in this research. I am one of those that answered… So I find it interesting to read about the result. I don´t have so many followers so I take time to read the updates daily… as I find it very interesting to read about tweets and click the links provided… as I am qurious and don´t want to miss anything interesting…
All the best,
Ulla
Great Job Eric. I keep getting people who are trying to sell with there links attached. But I don’t have the time to deal with it. Keep up the good work… you’ve got one of the best services on the net.
Thank you,
Richard……..
Thanks Eric, that was a LOT of work! I think I’d sort of come to that conclusion myself - it’s o.k. for people who are socialites, but for others, myself included, I’d have to really make myself do it, even though I don’t want to. One of the first things one learns is that forcing oneself work in a job they hate is a recipe for certain failure. Ego vadum non Twittare! (”I shall not Twitter!” - Though my Latin may be somewhat decrepit..)
Nice survey Eric1
I have had wonderful success with Twitter. Just starting out it helps laser targeting niche audiences and helps in building lists.
http://www.cashflowninja.com
Dear Eric:
You did a great job on this research and the results were very telling in how people view and use twitter, so for that alone, thank you.
For myself, I use Twitter as another blog, which is really what it is a “micro blog”, as such I find it quite successful, not only in terms of linking strategies, but also for creating readers, who then will go to the “main” blog.
I also use Twitter for the research aspect and follow only those who are within my interest range, which is a fantastic way of finding out the trends of an industry, but also can help give ideas to explore when writing any article or blog post and I confess also for the entertainment value also.
Once again, thank you for all this hard work and I know that I for one will keep this information in mind when helping other people.
Best Regards,
Thanks for the survey and posting the results Eric. You did a great job.
I’m a Twitterer who doesn’t follow everyone who follows me however I do check their Twitter page. If it looks like they Tweet useful information about things I’m interested in at least 50% of the time I will follow them. If not then I don’t since I scan the tweets of those I am following everyday and don’t need the extra clutter.
1 of the things I’ve noticed about those who are trying to follow everyone is that once they’re following a couple of hundred people or more they quit reading and responding to tweets. In fact, I’ve written a couple of blog posts about how to find the tweets from those you really want to follow.
Thanks again for all the work you did with this survey and I hope it convinces more people to at least give Twitter a try.
Eric,
Nice job on the survey…it pretty much played out like i thought it would. I received 3 phone calls on office phone, 2 on my cell, 10 emails and had to let my dog out while I was completing your survey. I hung in there though! But with all the informational and external communication outlets today it is almost impossible to get anything done. I am 56 and fondly remember the times when nothing interrupted me from watching the Three Stooges on TV every afternoon at 5:00 PM in the late 1950s. Times have certainly changed. Gotta Go…they’re having a Stooges Marathon on the TV Land channel….!!
Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, My Space, Youtube or whatever - and I have accounts with all those and more - if I have to go through the mundane act of tweeting or writing on a wall or any of those other (small talk) things to make money - I would rather be dead broke!
I have no problem having an intelligent conversation with anyone on a subject that is mutually of interest - but to go through all the utterly useless crap that every social site is made up of - I repeat I would rather be dead or broke or both!
To sum it up - I believe people on twitter are one of two types of persons.
Group 1: Those who genuinely like to socialize. More power to them.
Group 2: Those who do it begrudgingly in the hopes that it will lead to a sale.
I was in Group 2 until I realized how much I detested it.
Thank God there are other ways to make money online.
Ron
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.
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
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
Hey Eric!
Great review, once again! I actually started Twitter the same day you sent out the first batch of emails. =D
I’m curious, do you mind taking the survey and post your results?
Have a fabulous day!
Alex
PS How do I upload my picture, so I can see myself next to my comments?
Thanks! Alex
http://en.gravatar.com/ All you need to know is there.
Thanks!
Nice work Eric! It must’ve been quite a workout for the left side of your brain compiling all this data. (Or did you outsource it?)
Here’s my Working Mom’s perspective on twittering…
If you are already very busy, juggling a full time job, launching a career in internet marketing while simultaneously running a home and raising children, I’m going to go out on a limb and say spending your time “making twitter work for you” is a gamble that risks your productivity in things proven to have a better ROI. I’d personally recommend blogging or even Facebook before twitter. And as for following other people’s tweets…most of the busy people I know hardly have enough time to keep up with their real friends lives and activities. Much less following people who follow them on twitter.
But it’s entirely possible I simply don’t “get it.” That’s likely enough to be true. Just posting this comment is about the most “social networking” I plan to do this week!
Bottom line, unless you’ve actually got lots of spare time and tons of mental energy, I’d suggest most people would be better off investing their online time doing the things that have a quicker, more proven ROI.
Hope this helps!
Holy Smokes! That was very comprehensive!
Maybe you should post in on twitter (140 characters at a time!)
Personally, I just find myself not spending much time on twitter - it’s just a personal style issue, I guess!
Thanks for presenting this research to us!
Howard
My oh my - a truckload of data.
Interesting enough to be tweeted
Both impressive and interesting. But I have to say that I don’t think direct marketing is the best use of Twitter, and I weed out the salesmen very quickly. It is more social/networking. I pick up tips from the followers (I read their pages occasionally) to post on the above site and occasionally direct people to the site if it’s relevant to the topic at hand. I use it on two sites with reasonable success, but as I said my expectations of it are not that it will bring in direct sales. So my idea of success is probably not the same as other people’s.
Ultimately, if you treat it as a one-way medium, you’re in for disappointment.
Good job Eric. I am a sociologist and that was a pretty valid survey with a large enough sample. I use Twitter too, but am not crazed about it, though. Every little bit of traffic you can gain to your site helps. Twitter is just one of those methods. I don’t put a whole lot of stock into it, like anything. Thanx for your time! http://1159online.com
The scientific research crowd is possibly tainted with the contingent that believes all internet use is harmful, therefore, they’d be against most things online beyond email….
Great stuff here. Took me awhile to read it, as I was attempting to remember my answers as I read your conclusions. And I think maybe if you took this survey again after Oprah yesterday, you might get wildly different responses….
Eric, I participated in your survey and was looking forward to the results. I am SO impressed with all the work you put into it. Thank you so much. I must say I also put quite a bit of work into Twitter. I use many applications to try to make my twittering useful and helpful to my followers. I went from 0 to over 6500 followers in two months. I must be doing something right because my sales of affiliate (clickbank) products has tripled and the only thing different is twittering. So, I have to give the little tool credit. I’m not a techy person and tracking is not my forte (I’m ashamed to say so!), but I’m very, very happy with the results of using Twitter. I would encourage everybody to give it a try. Courtesy and offering interesting content is the key.
I have not used twitter yet and now I will because of your research results. I am an educator and trying to get tge word out about the classes on-line I have to offer. I also research labor markets and new self employment opportunities at all times. Thank you.
it sounds a lot like “time for change.” Why is it that when ever a new medium comes out, we question the validity of it. twittering is obviously working for some one or there wouldn’t be so much interest in it. Now, if I could figure out how to get 1,000,000 followers. I’m a twitter virgin; so something intrigued me to follow you here.
Eric, It’s me the 55 yrs old mom that is now in touch with the fast pace of today. As I was Reading this my 17 yr old son ask me what is Twittering also my Husband. You keep me in tune to the times. I’m going to try this to get followers to my site. I’ll let you know the outcome in 2 weeks. Peace
Hi Eric - Lotta work there.
. . . and I’m wondering if the depth of the survey backfired on you - that is, did the large # of questions filter demographics? We know it did, the question is who responded.
Good work - Please email me for a future business deal you will like. Thanks, Bill
Hi Eric,
Enjoyed reading your Twitter pole results. I just don’t get it. Twitter for some reason during the past few months has exploded. Heck, even Oprah is now using it.
I’ve for the first time put a Twitter badge on one of my blogs http://www.flyfishingcapital.com. Only about 35 followers so far, but I’m not using anything to recruite. I just let them know when new content has been posted and if anyone had ideas on how to answer particular questions related to fly fishing.
In my opinion Twitter is an excellent tool for letting people know what’s happening like at a concert, game, political event… while it’s happening live. That’s intersting to follow. Just sending Tweets out in the hope of generating sales is a no win situation.
Use the Twitter site to inform, not sell and you’ll be fine. But as a marketer, why would I spend 30 minutes out of my busy day just to inform, without making money? No, I won’t do it. I also won’t sit there reading short 140 char messages from someone trying to persuade me to visit this site to line their pockets.
Loved your post and keep up the good work.
-Kenny
Eric, I have to say that that is one of the best articles I’ve ever read on any subject.
So many people in the Internet marketing niche are asking questions about Twitter and you’ve managed to answser them all in one, good lengthy, piece. Thanks, I’m very impressed
Hi Eric,
Excellent research. I am a bit of a reluctant tweeter. I started because I felt I should, but found that I am not comfortable with tweeting about going to lunch or a shopping trip with my wife.
I have a fledgling online presence that currently does not warrant incessant tweeting about yet. So I tweet infrequently, maybe once or twice a week, occasionally more, when I come across other people’s blogs or sites that have something I feel others may like to know about.
This post is an example
Love your style of delivery. I am always tracking back and forth getting nuggets of gold from you.
Thanks
Peter
Yo, Eric.
Before all, cig large strong tall huge CONGRATULATIONS for this work of art. I bet have eat big amount of your time to do it and nonetheless energy
Short about your conclusions:
(twitter addicted style) - neah, you didn’t get it …
(skeptical style) - I knew it is not so worthy …
(my style) - do you remember I.R.C. ? Internet Relay Chat ? (censored)ck me, is the bloody same.
1) a long “list” of entries in “main” (all users or big channels)
2) same crowded style “list of entries” on your “page” - depending on how many ppls you follow = smaller channels
3) use it at a better level require external scripts, fact which “generated” a long list of programmers to show up with applications
4) while twitter / IRC is free, any additional aplication MUST be free, at least as basic features.
and so on …
At the end of the day, twitter (and other similar) are more or less necessary tools. Small peoples (marketers wannabe, like me as I restart all again) found it usable to grab some traffic and build relationships (and gain authority).
Big peoples (marketers or not) MUST be there for “one more” proof they are who they are.
Time consuming ? Big yes.
ROI for this time spent ? Well, as you said .. this is to be find out by each of us, if worth do it or not …
I didn’t really see any marketing potential in Twitter at all.
Great work Eric..
Thank you for that info and analysis Eric, very interesting.
“Following” seems a little like the first glance at the Twitter cocktail party. Followers have effectively said “you might be of interest to me; I’ll give you the chance to grab my attention and we’ll see how it goes”
Followers aren’t relationships in themselves, just a freely given opportunity to build them.
Best wishes,
Alex
Thanks for the comprehensive overview. Great Job! I’ve checked out Twitter’s many aspects and agree with your conclusions. Twitter is just getting started so it’s too soon for any final pronouncements.
Wow!! What a lot of work. Your analysis of all the data is outstanding (not to mention it’s written in language easy to understand). You make a lot of points that most of us just looking at the data would miss. At least that’s my opinion for what it’s worth. I agree with most of your conclusions and will still continue to watch it and use it from time to time. I really enjoy ALL your “TIPS”. They are all very well presented and I appreciate them a lot. A lot of the information is priceless and yet the price is right. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Take care and keep up the great work!!
Hi Eric, thanks for this great job.
Recently i found this free system that not only will ViralFollowers grow your twitter followers, but it will also allow you to grow your other business at the SAME time! http://www.list-twister.com/link/alfonsoruiz
It is very interesting to know how Twitter is becoming a household name.
It would be great to have over 1.000.000 money builder followers. http://www.josedweblink.com IS OVER 1.300.000 followers due mostly to CNN coverage.
I learned some valuable information from your survey. Slightly different wording of some of your questions would have resulted in greater accuracy. I was a sceptic when I first visited Twitter …I did not like the name. Within two days, I was hooked. It has proven to be a world changing success, without which the national teaparty would not have made national headlines. Also, it is a newscasters dream for information from afield and a politician’s best friend when it comes to listening to the people. I have made great friends within a mere three weeks. Twitter has become the new “dinner table conversation”.
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???
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.
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
Thanks Matt, I appreciate your affiliate support too
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).
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 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.
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.
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.
Thanks for all the work Eric to give us an objective appraisal. It seems like every other day I get some note from one of the so-called gurus about how I need to be tweeking which I’ve resisted at the gut level though I too was beginning to wonder if I should be more involed with it. Now I feel like all of us that have resisted another demand upon our time have been vindicated. Thanks again.
Great and mostly unbiased information about Twitter, Eric! You did a really good job at putting this all together and yes, it looks like you did ALOT of work…adding massive value to your subscribers, as usual.
Just wanted to say that with all of the hype and “showmanship” out there, you are definitely NOT an internet marketer that people have to take with a grain of salt. I for one appreciate your honesty and integrity (and all your hard work).
I will definitely be Tweeting the URL for this article to my foll0wers (Ahhhh…see a small benefit to us both as you may get some new traffic here and I present great information and resources to my followers
Thank You!
LOVE
Deb
aka Gutzy Woman
Hi Debbie, just checked your blog, nice to see you’re living a dream and rocking down under.
Thanks Eric, this has given my poor battered brain even more to ponder.
I have read Joel’s book and countless articles and I still do not understand Twitter. Whenever I have clicked on a link to go to Twitter I have generally found pointless drivel which leaves me wondering why anyone would bother to read it.
Of course, I have been tempted to join just because I keep being told that I should. I go there have a look then chicken out. Maybe it is, as you have described it, like a cocktail party. I have, thankfully, never been to a cocktail party in my life. The parties which I could not avoid have been some of the most tedious and surreal moments of my life. Parties seem to be packed full of people boasting about themselves, pretending to be something which they are not and often lying their heads off in order to make a conquest. Yup! Sounds a bit like Twitter.
For the moment I think that I will stick to the accidental little blog I recently started as a way of documenting some of the template and feed problems I was having while preparing the blog I really want to write. I posted the solutions that I had worked out as a way of storing them for future reference but soon found that others from around the world were using my solutions, thanking me for them and asking for other problems to be sorted out.
For me that is what the web should be about: sharing knowledge and helping others. There are plenty of people out there, like yourself, who freely give their time to help others and not just to make money. That is the way it should be, although money would definitely be a nice bonus.
Great work Eric!
My Twitter account has gone viral, I am getting two to three new followers a day for the last 3 months and I don’t even log into it. I just find it meaningless, but then again if I focus on it as a social madium, not business it seems to work very well. I have been living in areas where I dod not have consistent internet quality but now in Vietnam it very good so will get back to it soon.
Very well done on the Survey!
Rodney
Eric — you have done it again! You have out done yourself and helped the massess to better understand the Tweet, Twitter, and the many reasons that we Tweet. Thank you so much!
Hi Eric, great post you amaze me with your research, it’s been on point all the time I’m also not a great fan on twitter but if is working for some else why not keep trying, your breakdown on your survey on twitter its great!!!! I myself believe in old fashion values but again great work until next time.
Hey Eric You have put a lot of work into this mate. And some interesting results, I have not tryed to make money from twitter but going from your results a lot of people are.
Hi Eric,
Excellent job with the survey!
In my personal opinion, Twitter is ideal for celebrities and for social network building.
In order for Twitter to provide a positive business ROI, marketers should be in a position of proficiency in their respective niches.
My 2 cents …
Andrew
You’ve confirmed once again why Eric’s Tips is a valuable place to spend one’s time online. Sincere thanks for your efforts and insights on the survey, Eric. As Steve said, this is an “outstanding contribution to the internet community.”
I’ve followed internet trends since 1991, when I first encountered what I knew then would change the world (and that was pre-GUI when every command was typed on the blue screen of … well, you get the horse-and-buggy picture). It’s been an awesome ride since, and social networking is yet another wave to catch, assess, and finesse to suit your purpose — not just to jump on because Oprah did. The salient point in your analysis is that Twitter is not for everyone, and individuals need to decide how best to spend their valuable time.
As a literary agent and publishing consultant, I research social media to find out how authors and publishers can best use online tools to get their message out, create community, and promote the work they put their blood, sweat, and tears into producing. Each client’s needs are different, and new tools are coming online all the time. Exciting times, indeed.
Look forward to your collaboration with Joel Comm. I hope the marketers and others who have identified with Twitter early on will keep an open mind about its long-term value, and continue to provide broad, unbiased, and balanced assessments of online tools for their own customers. Keep up the great work, Eric!
Very well done Eric,
You have done outstanding contribution to many Twitters and Internet users. Thanks for the job well done !!!
Analyzing your survey data, I can see how much improvement can be done in Twitter itself. The Twitter Owners should read it and used.
Few month ago, I personally have done some survey using Zetpol Property System not about the Twitter, but using Internet for Marketing in Real Estate Industry. The data we received was shocking as well. These data … plus yours survey show me, how many other people need it now and will need it in near future. So this is the possibility of growing number of Twitters. The Real Estate industry (Realtors) .. they need it … specially now. The problem is true technology knowledge and education. We need to help one each other…
Regards to all,
Zbigniew
eric that was a lot of work. i took the survey and the largest percentages equaled my answers.i got bfm through your link and was following 1 person mike.(i had only been on twitter for 2 days when your survey came out)I wake up this morning for instance and have 41 more people following when i check my email.I don’t want to just ignore them but i really have more pressing things to do.now it’s off to check what these followers are into and follow or not. thanks for the info have a good day marty
Mind boggling twitter survey. Its great way to show new tweet follower’s what they should look for in your pie chart..!
Great Survey Eric, keep up the great work…
Libertyed
It’s nice to involved
Very cool analysis of Twitter. I am probably one of the ones that do 5 - 10 minutes 239 (25.9%)twittering a day. I believe it is a useful tool to write upcoming events, blog posting, salepage and opt ins.
If you did this all yourself Eric, that is alot of work.
But I have a feeling you outsourced it.
But I could be wrong.
Talking about twitter,
follow me at
twitter.com/Ray48021
Have a good day,
Ray.
I didn’t outsource it… but I probably should have! LOL
Hi Eric,
Again you outdid yourself. You always seem to get involved in an issue 125% and seek out an ultimate answer. The problem I see with Twitter
is most people are involved for the wrong reasons. As a “social” site it should be social and I, in my humble opinion, think that it should be left at that. As with any site that has a large following, Internet Marketers will find a way to use it to their advantage and try to make money.I still think the jury is out on how much impact Twitter will have on the whole
marketing picture. If used wrong this could be nothing more than cheap spam.
I myself am going to take a back seat,with an open mind and see what happens.Thank you again for a very informative article.Bravo!
Rick Howard
PS.Isigned up for Twitter but for sheer lack of time left it alone.
Great research on twitter! I think twitter is a great suppliment to other marketing activities. Nothing can ever compare to true relationships. Great job!
I participated in your survey and am not surprised to see the results posted here.
Twitter is just one part of the social media circus. I imagine it attracts a lot of newbie marketers because the price is right!
Your survey results prove Twitter isn’t going to perform well for internet marketers until they understand “best practices.”
I’m sure everyone who took your survey was looking for specific results. I was looking to see how many of your respondents (marketers & entrepreneurs) actually use Twitter as an opportunity for engagement.
Roughly 61% admit to reading fewer than half the posts. Since 87% claim to be on Twitter less than a half hour, this is understandable. Two thirds claim that their primary reason for being on Twitter is for business. That would indicate that they are sending out Tweets and not bothering to engage by following others’ links and reTweeting good information.
This is confirmed by the 55% who said they didn’t know if other people’s Tweets were valuable or not—a sure sign they aren’t engaged in Twitter but merely spamming their own message.
Hi Eric, Back in town and missed your survey ( and no I didn’t tweet my leaving…see twitter as a potential source for enterprising burglers).
I like Sylvie’s description of twitter as a cocktail party. I’ve used it to get ideas and opinions from a wide variety of people that I would never have encountered in daily life.
But I’m also like you in that I find the constant dinging of updates quite distracting. I only have it on when doing email reading.
I see how some marketers have incorporated Twitter into their overall strategy and are succeeding. But some neophytes are doing themselves a huge disservice, and perhaps lasting damage, in their blunt approaches.
Twitter can be Haiku in a master’s hand or messy graffiti in a sales hungry beginner’s.
Sorry for the long post. Will we be conditioned to only read 140 characters at a time? Just like TV’s 12 second angle shots?
Colin
Awesome work Eric
I recently became a “twit” hoping to get people to our site Christianbuyernet where you can help feed the hungry simply buy shopping.
Can’t tell yet if it works or not.
Thanks Larry
Eric,
If spending time on Twitter makes you feel ‘weird’, best not to go down that slippery slope. Crowd energy bombards us on many levels, some apparent and others more subtle, yet that negative drain of power may last long after you have left the scene.
I know from your posts and following you for these past few years that you have a healthy ethical and moral code. Others may not be as strong
In my own case I use the Internet primarily to do research for my information products. Twitter posts are so much scattered energy that I do not find them useful at all. But then I would rather have a root canal than go to a cocktail party!
I am glad that others can use Twitter to their advantage, and also that we don’t all have to use the latest platforms to be able to get full value from the Internet.
No Tweets for me please.
Karen Elizabeth
Hi Eric,
It appears your survey results have hit the spot and are spot on! Like everyone here we can now see the value of research before getting into a niche etc.
I am one of the non users on Twitter but because of your interest in it I opened an account. At This phase of my online career I don’t have a lot of time to waste on obviously marginal marketing areas for beginners, and since opening the account I have only checked it once. Although I noticed you are now following me on Twitter!
Having said that I do see the value in it and as I start to climb the ladder of online success I may revisit Twitter as a marketing option. But right now as you have said one thing at a time…..focus….focus…focus.
I would like to add some food for thought in regards to social networking. How does the social side of these networking sites relate to demographics, such a male female and young and old?
I will hazard a guess that the younger ones are more interested in expanding their socializing and can do it at the lightning speed they are more use to (instant gratification kids) than do the older users trying to tighten and focus their social networks to more valuable circles. In any case it would have been interesting to include age and gender in your survey.
One other thing to ponder is the relevance of the term “friend”. When I was growing up I was taught that there was a big difference between a “friend” and an “acquaintance”. That distinction seems to have become blurred in social networking!
Eric, I believe in you as an online marketer and your lessons have been the best formatted and most informative. You are a great source for anyone learning the business…..keep it up!
Mark
Eric - that is an EXCELLENT survey. EVERYONE seems to be saying that you MUST Twitter if you want to build a list as an online marketer. But my view is you need to build a list of people who are specifically INTERESTED in your product or service. Not just a list of people whose ONLY interest is to add you to their list in return. I don’t Twitter and don’t intend to. Your survey supports what I suspected - that my time would be better spent elsewhere. I think every online marketer who uses Twitter to build their list should calculate their earnings from Twitter and decide if it is worth their while.
I agree. the thing is that people need to be interested in your products. Most people on Twiltter just want to sell something, not buy.
As usual, your information is detailed as well as interesting. A massive effort all for us. You are a true teacher!
I haven’t had time to tweet over the last month, yet I still get followers, some good some not so. I still believe that over time a list of true followers interested in a twitterer’s product is very possible. It’s like any form of marketing, it takes time to build your targeted list!
I always read your newsletters and store them if I don’t have time. Thanks for all your efforts.
thanks for the info…appreciate your efforts into informing your followers/students…
A great deal of effort you have gone to Eric I am not surprised due to your methodical nature I have noticed. I believe Twitter provides me with contacts to online successful individuals I would otherwise not know. This is good. I read other people I follows points and surf the websites and do find really cool stuff. Just this morning I watched a video of the current changes (negative)going on with Youtube. I am in the process of uploading affiliate products on the attraction of video marketing so I left my comment. Had it not been for a twitter follow directing me to this current topic I may have missed the opportunity to express my concerns. So Twitter has its benefits for information sharing as well as other uses. Thanks for the opportunity of your findings.
Hi Eric,
I have over 6000 followers but I believe people just skim Twitter looking for things of very direct interest.
I see Twitter as a good sounding boarding to get trickles of traffic for niches I am involved in.Appreciate all of your work on this one.
Paul
WOW Eric, that was some master piece of data collecting. Stayed up a few nights on that one I bet. LOL. I for one am glad you did that survey. I have been using twitter now for 3 months and have not noticed any change in the traffic to my sites. So, I have been wondering if it was really worth the time to mess with it. Now I know. Thank You!
Eric,
I must admit, I’m relieved beyond words to see the outcome of your survey, and then also reading your thoughts on this matter.
Not being much of a social networking type myself, and not using twitter on a regular basis, I had thought I was the odd one out and that all hope for me as an Internet Marketer was lost. (OK, that’s stating it a little strongly, but seriously, after reading what some Twitter evangelists have to say…)
Thank you so much for the time and energy you put into this.
Hi Eric,
Amazing results and I am sure an amazing amount of work went into your survey.
I think the appeal of Twitter is the quickness you can have in using it.
I think it is a great way to connect with other people online and perhaps too many people are doing the same thing on twitter they do in their online marketing - trying to sell the prospect at first site!! This is wrong and not very appealing to the Twitter recipient.. people need to know you , like you, and T R U S T you before they will buy from you.
So, please all you hyperactive Twitter users out there - don’t say thanks for following me and then try to sell me something - give me a reason I should follow you and then later I may buy what you have .. if I am interested!
Anyway, great insights as usual Eric.
Best regards,
Harry
How long did it take for you to prepare this data?
I m wondering how many of you went through this article. If people don’t have time to tweet –will they have time to read this article?
But anyways—good job in getting this survey..I think its too long.
p.s. People do abuse and take advantage of media..
Hi Eric,
Excellent survey. As for its length? I believe that a report/review is as long as it needs to be - there should not be a prescribed length. For an extensive and extremely informative survey like yours, I believe that the report would have held readers interest right to the end - as it did me.
As usual, I was not dissappointed by your output - as my dear old dad says “if a jobs worth doing, its worth doing well!”
Keep up the great work Eric
Jon
thank you very much for this well prepared and very informative article. I’m going to tweet it to my followers right now!
Eric,
as always.
I commend your thoroughness - and dedication to giving great value to your followers … er I mean list
I started using Twitter in June 2008, simply as an experiment, seeing how little work it would take to grow a following. Through posting 160 or so updates over 10 months (approx 1 every 2 days, taking 2 or 3 minutes) I now have over 300 followers… but little or no monetisation.
I know I provide interesting updates, and I have read some very interesting posts, but for me it probably won’t go much further than that as it takes more time than I want to devote to it for the moment.
This is sort-of confirmed by the survey results - very interesting!
) about this post!
Thanks again, and well done as always. I’ll be blogging (and possibly twittering
kind regards
Tracey, The Simple Web Company
[…] done an incredible survey about Twitter called “The State Of Twitter“. He polled over 1,500 people, which is great because it decreases statistical variance and […]
Wow Eric job well done. I kind of think the way you do. My biggest problem is finding time to spend on Twitter. It’s really hard within that time to read twits as well as twitting. It just seems like the relationship people have is kind of up in the air and really not a close relationship. What do you think?
Hello Louis…First try to decide why you wanna use twitter. You don’t want to jump into something just because you read it (even from expert). Eric did a good job here but its up to you decide whether Twitter will be useful for you. Yes Twitter seems easy and its easy but it really depends on your purpose. But at the same time, if you have time to read this blog which is useful as well, you shouldn’t have any problem about the time you spent on Twitter. But again–depends on your motive/purpose…
I started Twitter a couple of weeks ago maybe 3/4 and I have found that if you are a people person you will be fascinated by the variety of folks on twitter, it becomes addictive,, then common sense has to creep in and you start to ration your time on twitter, the next step is to test it out 4 marketing, not many people are being successful here. But that doesnt mean its no good , it could just mean that a slightly different approach is needed. So many folks just do the same old thing and then moan when it doesn’t work. Come on folks, imagination
Someone on my blog, where I’ve been questioning the utility of social media in terms of business generation for consultants, recommended your survey to me. I want to congratulate you on a great piece of research, though it takes longer to read it than to tweet (just kidding!). Nice work. People want ego-pleasing air time, but this is no way to make a living.
Hi Eric:
Great info. Thanks for the info on Twitter. that’s why your followers including myself reguard you as an inspiration in their lives. You do teach us soooooooo much.
Impressed by the width and depth of the research - thanks for the freebie sharing! In my mind, this research result sums it up nicely:
How many visitors to your website (s) do you receive from Twitter?
More than 101 per day (1.8%)
How much money do you make as a direct result of Twitter?
More than $101 per month (4.5%)
These numbers confirm the (in)famous “5% rule,” i.e. what you find in most success related studies: 5% will be successful (mastery level) of which 1% will be grotesquely so (the Midas touch). The question for twitterers, do you want to be a 5-percenter or 95-percenter? Your research results go a long way to opening the door to the 5%. Cheers, Beat
Eric: Talk about offering value! There is so much twittering about twitter that it is easy to be sucked in to the hype. You helped us take a step back and look at the big picture. I enjoy Twitter but your stats supported my own intuition - goes right back to “all things in moderation”.
Hi Eric,
Great job. I think is a post to read over again to get all the data that you put together. The results are not very surprising as it looks like people are split in certain areas. I have been using it and my numbers keep going up even though I’m not doing anything to get followers except for posting to twitter.
I find it a difficult to build a relationship on twitter unless as you said send a direct @message. It just looks like eveyone is out for themselves and that’s o.k. but I was hoping for something a little more personal.
I’ll keep up with it as it does give my blog a little jump everytime I update.
Thanks again Eric and I look forward to your joint report with Joel
Eric, thanks for this!
IMHO:
There is already too much static on the line! No time for Love. No time to consider the serious issues that we face. No time to focus.
I see the potential for institutional propaganda and communication.
But, do you really want your surgeon to stop in the middle of your heart surgery and tweet an update to ANYBODY?
I also see the potential for a massive “call to arms” - in a time of crisis or issue of national, state or local importance. I just don’t see enough people who would pay attention or care enough to respond. Not now anyway. (Maybe someday when enough people realize that, in order for our government to work, we actually have to govern ourselves.)
It would be wonderful, though, if I found myself in a world where all this potential became truly useful and meaningful and not just another diversionary toy.
Or just more static on MY line!
Eric, You may be interested in this, just found it-
http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/
Good info Eric. I found that Twitter most of my followers are actually advertising their own products and they come from a wide segment of products, mostly out of sync with mine. So much about its hype but seems to me Facebook and other social sites have more advantages over Twitter.
What a relief to hear a high profile marketer finally say this. I personally see NO advantage in Twitter, although, as you say in your conclusions, it’s perfectly possible that I just don’t “get it”. But I’ve known all my life that I’m not a particularly sociable person - I hate parties, for example - so the idea that I couldn’t really make a decent living off the Internet without diving into and dominating the whole social networking thing depressed the hell out of me.
So my tweets are confined to updates whenever I post to my blogs. I have no idea if anyone sees these tweets or gives a rat’s patooty about them. Your survey gives me hope that not caring doesn’t matter.
So thanks for making this effort and sharing the results!
Susan Livingstone
Great job Eric!
I translated this work to Russian for my readers (sure with link to you)
Great research and post, Eric.
I agree with your conclusion that it’s good for some, not for others. For me, would be a waste of time as far as ROI is concerned. But I can see how it’d be useful for those ALREADY into this kind of thing. I’m not a big socialite, & like you, prefer small groups of *real* friends.
Hello Eric,
Thanks for sharing this data. Fascinating. Great linkbait and a far better use of your time than Twittering.
On the other hand, from 15 minutes a day on Twitter we are making about $2000/month mainly on our Typepad to Wordpress conversions. Surprised other people are making so little money on Twitter.
I am surprised so many people tweet for fun. Fun is going for drinks with one’s friends, not sending SMS to strangers.
But great to see those figures.
From what you’ve written here, autofollowing might be more useful than I thought.
Have kept all you your emails, however have just started really reading them and finding them quite informative.
Hi there Eric, I just have to say what a mammoth amount of time you have dedicated to this survey. It was certainly very much an intersting read.
As very much an internet newbie I found your article quite an interesting read especially as I am completely clueless about that twitter thing. None the less I felt that I should be informed and I have read it and also the links to Michael Fortin and Randy…the other one who linked to Michael.
I feel the twitter stuff is like a new world that from the outside is one that I will probably never visit. I have enought to do just doing your tutoring course let alone trying to bring this twitter stuff on board. But it is something that is making news and as they say the enemy of my enemy in my friend. So I will have to keep informed on this “flash in the pan”
Reading about the seven deadly sins of twittering I think that those “sins “can equally be applied to the internet and real life as well. So maybe we can learn from twitter just a little bit, but I think I will leave well enough alone, for now.
Could you please resend Message four?
Hello Eric,
I’m tryig to purchase ” Exit Splash at 4.35 GMT and keep getting told
“Unable to process your order at this time”
I don’t want to lose bonuses! What to do???
I’m assuming Dave gave you the bonuses? If not, just show him this post as proof, and I’m sure he’ll let you download them.
hi eric, I agree with your thoughts on twitter as well as other “cocktail parties” It takes time out of one’s life, listening to idle chit chat. Yes, there is some good info gained from it, but it would confuse someone who needs to keep their vision in focus. I hope you can understand my point of view. One or two good friends is far superior to many associates, who may or may not know what they are talking about.
Great post Eric.
I’m surprised at a few of the results. I also thought most Twitter users were after a large following.
G’day Eric,
You are becoming my new best friend. How’s that for social networking? I may not get to all your post right away but I always look forward to each of them. This is no exception. It’s only with good information that people like me can weave their way throughout he maze of stuff that is out their on internet marketing. You continue to deliver time and time again.
Thanks
Eric, I have a problem, I have a WorldPress blog on my domain (michaelacernescu), that one is working well.
Today I installed WorldPress in a diferent domain (squidooeventlog) it finished correctly, I got an email with admin info, and when I try to get in my admin for the new blog I got an error: ERROR: Invalid username.
What I am doing wrong. I create a tichet, no respons yet. Both WordPress domains are addons to my main domain (mc-ebay-resources.com).
1) I looked to FTP, looks good to me, the single difference is first one is installed on michaelacernescu, the second one is installed on squidooeventlog.com (why .com? on public _html?)the configuration is the same
2) I request change password, I got the same error message when I try the new password
Do you think that the new domain is not propagated yet? or I did something wrong?
regards
michaela
Ok! Eric,
The problem has been solved by Robert, Thanks
regards
Michaela
Over 60 percent of those who have signed up are not using twitter.
Ithink I will use Twitter.
Kenneth
I really enjoyed your information and statistics on twitter. LOL thank you for doing this research. Congratulations I admire your effort.
I have been wondering, how are people truly using twitter and what is it’s ability to sustain and grow. Also being a mobile marketer by profession, your stat about if people a rereading the updates was compelling. It is my theory that Twitter could desensitize the effectiveness of wanting to stay constantly connect to friends and family via texting.
Whew! Great stuff. What was left out in my estimation is the in-person/twitter factor. Here in the Sacramento Valley region I know a lot of the people I follow I have met personally from live networking. It is a way to further the live personal relationship.
Impressive, Eric! - Have first fully read your survey after I have engaged myself in Twitter: http://twitter.com/sorenbreiting
From my experience:
3. You have to send helpful tweets most of the time so your followers will tend to open your links. That means that your marketing has to be on a very discrete level.
1. If you follow more than around 100 active twitters you are not really following them, but are just “following” them for other reasons.
2. One main problem is, that you need to have your tweets send when your followers are online Twitter, if not your tweets will drown in their flood of tweets. - I have seen a tool that can keep your tweets until that happen but later I forgot the tool. Any help, please, Thanks
I am experimenting a little with a WordPress tool that shows your recent tweets on your blog / website as you can see here on one of my blogs http://www.sorens.org/ in the right menu (sorry to have to ‘advertise it’), but I think and hope that could be one way to get more benefit of your invested time on Twitter. Because, Eric, I really agree with your points of view related to the invested time on Twitter – lots of wasted time, for most if not all, unless you have a very tight group you are mutually following around a common interest.
Thanks again
Soren Breiting
Denmark
Wonderful insight into the division of multitaskers and onetrackminders like me.
Thank you again Eric.
Eric,
I am reading this at the end of July, not in April, when you published this, but I thought it would be noteworthy to mention an article I just read on Webpro News. Twitter has just cleaned house and deleted a lot of people’s followers, due to the increased use of their platform by spamming marketers.
As with anything on the internet, someone will always find a way to abuse something to the point that it has to be monitored or regulated.
I expect some Twitter Use legislation bills to be proposed in Congress any day.
I have just become a *Twit*, which I think is a better term for a user than *Tweeter*. The jury is still out as far as I’m concerned, but I will choose to follow you, for the time being and see where it leads.
Great survey, very insightful questions. As fast as things change though, you should probably do it again. I would bet your responses will be somewhat different.
Alice Cunningham
[…] UPDATE: I now use Joel’s Instant Form Pro for most of my surveys. That’s what I used for my twitter survey, and other surveys. I like how easy it is to set up, and how it enables me to export the data to […]
congratulation Mr.Eric Holmund
It was a pretty comprehensive survey about twitter users and non users. Most of the findings were as expected,however there were some interesting findings.
Rahul
Hi Eric, really good report. I plan to use some of this data in my talk next week at the 140 Conference in LA. But question for you: is there any updated info?
I do not personally have any updated info, other than to say I still feel the same about twitter.
I have not seen a lot of results from twitter, but I believe that is primarily because I have not spent much time on twitter building relationships. I have plenty of followers, but without building real relationships and trust, it’s not a very potent marketing list.
Partially for this very reason, some well known internet marketers are cancelling their twitter accounts, Frank Kern being one of the most recent to do so.
It’s a matter of ROI for your time, and if you can make more money focusing on other aspects of your business, it makes sense to put twitter on the back burner.
On the other hand, there are marketers who have decided to focus on twitter (or social networking in general), and many of them have had great results. So I’d say twitter is one of those things in life that you get out of it what you put into it.
Your site contains great information, i will invite my friends to your site
Hi Eric,
This is great information! I just noticed another interesting survey was currently being conducted about twitter use also. It is located at http://tinyurl.com/m5v9so
Keep up the great work!
Jack
Hello,
Great information you have compiled here. I have questioned the relevancy and the benefits of building a large list. I will definitely re-read you information a couple times over to digest all of the information. Thanks for the hard work and info.