Online Marketing Blog from metrocafe311

Even just a few months ago, Twitter was seen as a foreign idea…hard to understand the “tweet speak”, hard to get the hang of the ground rules, and just one of those things that only the digital and “techy” people understand (like my fellow geeks and I at metrocafe311). While, yes, there are certainly mass amounts of people who still don’t know what Twitter is, there sure are a lot more people who’ve started to use it. The growth in numbers is most easily spotted with reports from the United States, with 131% growth in March alone; but it’s become clear to even Irish users that the Twitter community is not such as small world afterall. This matters for those of us in digital marketing.

What drove me to write this blog was the amount of times I’ve read about Twitter in the newspaper over the last few weeks. For well over a year, Facebook and Myspace have been the social networks everyone was wondering about, but now journalists have included Twitter when they’re doing their research. Seeing all this talk about “tweets” in the Irish news was supported by the reports in the US about the huge growth it has seen, month on month. A report from ComScore reported a 131% increase in visitors to Twitter, in March alone. That means 5 million more visitors in March, than there were in February. So there’s 9.3 million visitors, why all of a sudden?

One of the reasons these figures have increased so heavily in the last few months is due to the amount of celebrities taking up the social network. The celebrity craze never quite happened in Facebook, due to the privacy settings and people having to “become friends.” But since Twitter is a more open network, people are logging on just to see what the “Real Britney Spears” is doing on tour, what John Mayer was up to at the weekend, or what shenanigans Ashton Kutcher is up to now. An article from Ad Age goes through the scandal regarding Ashton Kutcher’s following on Twitter, but points to the fact that controversy over what he was saying there led to millions logging in to “follow” the man himself, and therefore skewing the overall active usage on Twitter.

So there are millions more users, but are they actively using Twitter? Chances are…no, they are not. But they are getting started, trying to figure things out, and they’ll be looking for people to engage with who can ease the process. This means for marketers, especially those of us online, Twitter has become an even more valuable resource for tapping into consumers who are looking for answers.

I must point to the excellent bit of data that has been compiled by Niall Harbison, of ifoods.tv, called “Irish Users on Twitter Profiled.” From this survey, its clear that Twitter is not just on the rise in the US, but here in Eire as well. Pointing the fact that the majority of Irish users are new to the network, 55% of respondents said they had been using Twitter for less than 3 months. The opportunity for marketing and brands lies in the response to the question “Do you think you have been targeted by any Irish brands in the last 6 months on Twitter?” 67% of the respondents said “No.” This means that either Irish brands aren’t using Twitter or that they are doing so well enough that Irish consumers don’t even realise it! I’d say it depends on the brand, but there is no doubt that Twitter should be considered for Online Marketing plans as a useful way to gather insight and garner engagement. Monitor and measure your activity closely, and you’ll see results.