Twitter user profile: Is your audience using Twitter ?

03/13/10 06:23 AM Filed in: Social Media

Believe it or not there are some old rules of marketing that still apply. One of the oldest that is still applicable is "go where your audience is". Right now Twitter is NOT where your audience is for a lot of companies and allocating resources to Twitter maybe a waste of company dollars.

Although Twitter is growing at a rapid rate, a new study from Barracuda Networks claims a relatively small number of the social network's users are "True Twitter Users." Barracuda Networks defines a True Twitter User as a person who has at least 10 followers, follows 10 people, and has updated their status with at least 10 tweets. After analyzing more than 19 million Twitter accounts, it found that only 21% of the social network's users fell into that category. The remaining 79% lacked at least one of the three requirements.

Before jumping into Twitter ask yourself "is my audience/customers using Twitter?"
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Now keep in mind that Twitter is a great tool for getting market information on you and your competitors but it doesn't require someone online 24/7/365 to get this information. A lot of companies are also finding that Twitter is a great tool for their customer service people who can answer questions from Twitter users in real time but again the key is to ensure that people can find you on Twitter and that they are interested in contacting you to ask a question. I'm sure, for example, that using Twitter as a customer service tool would make more sense for a maker of appliances than for a company that markets fruit or frozen dinners. Remember that a LOT of people friend brand to get discounts not because they want to be friends with your brand.

Tags: Twitter