It's a question we get posed a fair bit, and probably fairly, because with any new technology or social network the initial core audience will always be full of early adopters. We only need to review Facebook phenomenal growth in the last 12 months to see that (there are now over 700,000 Australians over 50 on Facebook each month, many of whom have signed up during 2009).
Thankfully, and perhaps surprisingly for some it seems that Twitter is following Facebook in to the mainstream. We know this part through the celebrity craze that has long been publicized (Kutcher is up over 2m followers now) but more so through Twitters Trending Topics, which is basically the most talked about words and subjects on Twitter at any one time. And with c.18m tweets in a day it’s not inconsequential.
A quick look at todays shows that it is mainstream news, entertainment and culture that is forging the main content:
- True Blood (TV series)
- Iran Election
- ‘Music Monday’
- Vegas
- LA Station Fire
And whilst I don’t have the trending topics from a year or so ago I think it’s a fair assumption to say these will have had a far more technological and digital marketing feel to them. Definitely good news as it is further confirmation that Twitter is a valid channel for many brands, and dare I say it – here to stay (for a while at least).
Mind you, as more and more Aussies jump on board we should remember to practice safe social networking. A study in the UK has shown that many Facebook and Twitter users are telling the world they are going on holiday, giving burglars easy pickings. You have been warned.
Cheers
Nic
I'm trying to rein in my Twitter-cynicism but does anyone else have the feeling that the 'green' demonstrations in Iran may have been the high point for Twitter as a genuine media channel?
ReplyDeleteSpurred on by an Iranian friend I joined and took feeds from a number of sources in the country only to be almost instantly rewarded by a barrage of re-Tweets and requests to take the feeds of porn stars and sundry snake-oil salesmen.
Recent research shows that 40% of all Tweets are "pointless babble" (mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-analysis/), add re-tweets and SPAM to this figure and you've got a channel where cut-through is incredibly hard to obtain.
Any chance of posting a cynicism-defying Case Study Nick?
Steve
ReplyDeleteI can see you are in one of those moods ;-)
Firstly, there's nothing wrong with re-tweets - they are a huge part of the sharing culture of social media, and Twitter in particular.
I'd also say that every major news story across the world is now breaking via Twitter with real time reports from people on the ground, giving us an incredible birds eye view on events (n.b. the BBC receive over 10,000 user content stories a day now).
As for case studies, sure. Dell have recently passed $2m sales via Twitter.
http://mashable.com/2009/06/11/delloutlet-two-million/
Teusner wines is a very strong case study, and one from these shores. http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/case_teusner.
Zappos.com (they sell shoes and recently sold to Amazon for 1billion dollars) is one of Twitter's biggest success stories, with over 500,000 followers and 500 active Twitter writers). I'll leave you to find out the rest.
BBGeeks is a site about BlackBerry's, quite the social media success story. http://www.sugarrae.com/commercial-twitter-case-study-revisited/
And our very own Harley Davidson account is worth a mention too, approaching 1000 avid Harley followers, many of whom are contacting the account weekly about new products and providing us with content to use.
Yours with babble
Nic
Thanks Nick. I think that's me pretty much told. Gotta love the way the Net broadcasts one's ignorance in a much quicker fashion than conventional media.
ReplyDeleteAs more and more Australian brands start to use Twitter as a marketing channel care must be taken to be transparent and not to mislead. Last night Virgin Blue celebrated turning nine years old with $9 seats on sale across a range of routes in the first of what the airline said will be regular ‘Twitter’ sales. The various feed sites said - ‘From 9pm tonight until sold out, Virgin Blue will offer 1000 $9.00 one-way fares for Virgin Blue Twitter fans to snap up across a range of destinations including Canberra - Sydney, Port Macquarie - Sydney, Brisbane - Newcastle and Rockhampton - Brisbane. The fares are for travel from February 2, 2010 to February 27, 2010.’ When the sale did finally take off after a twenty minute delay, it turns out these were the only routes at that price although you could still book any other destination at the full price of course. What Virgin Blue needs to remember is that the beauty of twitter is the power it puts in the hands of the consumers in real time. As soon as the sale started my Twitter inbox was full with disgruntled customers who felt they had been mislead. This promotion may have done more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteMike