Is Twitter Useless For Most?

Last month I hit a minor milestone – my 3000th tweet. Ok so I’m not as prolific as some tweeps but my time on Twitter has been more than fruitful – so fruitful in fact that I had to write a post to help me take stock of all that had happened since I started on Twitter. 5 twitter useless Is Twitter Useless For Most?

The conclusion of my reflection was that it was all about connections. So I guess that’s why it alarms me when I see posts like Dan Schwables “RIP Twitter as a marketing platform“.

Dan’s premise for this bold claim is that there is more clutter due to the huge number of users on Twitter. Essentially he is saying that everyone is broadcasting and no one is listening, or as Gavin Heaton recently said in a comment here on iThnk without interaction we’re all just shouting into the wind.

On the flip side,  in a great mashable post from March this year they examined a new study from security firm Barracuda Labs.  The results don’t back up Dan Schwables claims about the  clutter on Twitter, the stats say that most of its users aren’t very active at all.

The study looked at around 19 million Twitter accounts in order to figure out how people are using Twitter. It started with one assumption: An active or “True” Twitter user has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people and had tweeted at least 10 times. By that definition though, only 21% of Twitter users are active users.

Only 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more by December 2009, while only 40% were following 10 people or more (in fact, a majority of Twitter users, 51%, were following less than five people).

So What!

Just because the stats show that a lot of the buzz about Twitter’s massive hoard of users is vastly over hyped and just because Dan thinks that Twitter is less responsive than it used to be doesn’t mean the connections made through twitter are any less valuable! Like the image says Twitter is as useless as Facebook statuses….well Facebook is now the primary medium through which many of us communicate with our friends and in March this year it had more hits than Google, so if the Twitter is as useless as FB updates then Twitter is pretty dam valuable.

Why? Because we use Facebook to connect with the people who are close to us….so the value of the connections are limitless.

There’s still a huge critical mass of almost 4million ‘active’ users but all this means is there’s a bit more clutter to sift through, it means that markers have to be more exceptional to break the mold and make their Twitter presence more remarkable! Or perhaps we as marketers need to go back to thinking of twitter more like LinkedIn where we start building connections rather than ‘Followers’.  Especially now that the numbers aren’t so attractive maybe marketers will think about whether the people who are ‘active’ on twitter are the right sort of people for them to be connecting with.

The companies who get this right stand to benefit because while the stats aren’t super pretty at the moment, early indications are that in 2010 the percentage of active users is improving….

So What Do uThnk?

Is Twiter still a valuable medium for business?

Image Cred: amalgam -Becoming twaddicted (this is a wonderful visual post).

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Sammy Is Twitter Useless For Most?

This post was written by Sam Schuurman (aka SocialSammy). You can connect with him on both Twitter and Linkedin.

  • claire

    Twitter is great for businesses surely?! It's cheap (relatively), gets you noticed (even just the act of following)… The type of people who use twitter would probably be mostly mavens, so who knows who they pass your information onto? It's just one possible way to start word of mouth marketing… My two cents anyways =)

  • socialsammy

    Hi Claire

    I truly believe that it's not just one way to start WOM – it's a great way, maybe even one of the best.

    iThnk the reason for people doubting the effectiveness of twitter are mostly those who see it as a broadcast medium. These people tend to measure click through rather than the value of connections.

    Unfortunately this is the old marketing paradigm and it's almost impossible to get rid of in a hurry. I only hope that at some stage marketers switch on to the value of connections.

    Thanks for your two cents, really appreciate you stopping by. Have a great day.

    Sam

  • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

    I was speaking with @Ed last night, and we both joked that any post or article that starts with “Twitter is dead” (or any similar-sounding title) is usually the perfect reason not to read it.

    Yes, there's a lot of noise, but then there's a lot of noise in traditional marketing and advertising too. The great thing about Twitter is that you dictate what noise you hear – you can't always do that with traditional models (ever tried asking movie theatres to stop the adverts and go straight to the movie?).

    And if Twitter isn't any good as a marketing platform, someone better tell the companies that are using it to bring in extra revenue day after day…

  • http://twitter.com/JGoldsborough JGoldsborough

    Most of the Twitter apps that have come out in the past couple of years (i.e.Tweetdeck, Tweetgrid) make it so much easier to cut through the clutter. Also takes some work to build your relationships and network, just like anything else.

    Thanks for the post.

  • socialsammy

    Hi Danny

    I almost didn't read Dan Schwable's post for exactly the reason you and @Ed joked about. Dan's major argument was based on broadcasting mentality, where you can make people listen to your message. Whereas as you say with Twitter people get to choose what noise they listen to and just as with regular marketing mediums all this means is that marketers need to break through the clutter by becoming remarkable/relevant….

    I guess for me breaking through the clutter is all about connecting, but contrary to my point in this post it probably doesn't have to center around connections, @airpointsfairy has nothing to do with connections – but it's remarkable and it's relevant to the medium. So once aging purple cows come into play.

    Thanks for ignoring the tittle and taking the time to read & comment.

  • socialsammy

    Hi Justin

    I agree it's easy to filter the clutter to see what you want, but coming at it from the reverse perspective is slightly trickier. As marketers part of the aim when using Twitter is to attempt to connect enough, be relevant or remarkable enough that people don't use those same tools that you mentioned to filter you out of their lives. As you said “it takes some work” and I think that this is why there is still a massive opportunity in Twitter if you're willing to put in the yards.

    Thanks for commenting rally appreciate it.

  • alexwhalley

    What an awesome twitter resource you have provided man! Thanks for that, I know where to send the twitter haters now!
    Ironically my favourite part of the post was not in the post at all but rather the comments and Ithnk it sums up exactly what I thought when I read the post:
    “iThnk the people doubting the effectiveness of twitter are mostly those who see it as a broadcast medium. These people tend to measure click through rather than the value of connections.” THAT IS BRILLIANT!
    Thanks Sam

  • socialsammy

    Hi Alex

    So true you've highlighted the essence of what I should have said in the post….dam! It's like that witty comeback that you find in the back corner of your mind only after you've walked away from a deep burn.

    Maybe I'll do a post about broadcast mentality. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.

  • socialsammy

    Thanks iThnk….you're cryptic message is slightly beyond me & unfortunately your link doesn't work.

    Thanks anyway

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