To Young Adults, Twitter’s for Friends, Not Brands
Consumers 18 to 24 have come to embrace social networks but have yet to include Twitter in that hug, according to new research from the Participatory Marketing Network, a trade association promoting social marketing.
According to a study conducted in May on 200 Gen Y members of a PMN panel, 99% of the group said they currently have one or more active profiles on social networks such as Facebook or MySpace. But only 22% of that same group said they are actively using microblogging service Twitter.
The study was conducted by the PMN together with the Interactive and Direct Marketing lab at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business.
“Twitter dominates the news, but clearly we’re only touching the surface of its potential as a marketing vehicle,” PMN co-founder and chairman Michael Della Penna said in a release. “There is a tremendous opportunity now for marketers to develop strategies to get this important group active on Twitter too.”
Of those respondents who said they are active on Twitter, 85% said they use the serviced to follow friends, while 54% track celebrities and 29% keep tabs on family.
As to their behavior on social networks, 89% say they have downloaded a photo application to their social page. Another 53% say they have installed a game app, and 51% say they have added entertainment content to their profiles.
Media metrics agency comScore reported an 83% monthly increase in U.S. traffic on Twitter in April, with unique visitors growing to 17 million from 9.3 million in March.
Other findings from the PMN research:
• 38% of respondents 18-24 say they use a iPhone or iPod Touch
• Of that group, 53% say they’ve downloaded game apps to the device, 35% have accessed entertainment apps, and 31% have added lifestyle apps.
• 28% have downloaded free financial apps, while 7% have bought paid apps for their Apple smartphones.
• However, just over one quarter of device-owning respondents (26%) said they have not accessed any iPhone or iTouch applications.
June 25th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
The article is interesting and shares smart data and insights, but whomever is writing the Promo Interactive newsletter needs to be smarter in how they summarize articles.
The newsletter had one of the dumbest sentences I’ve seen in quite some time: “Take a look here at stats that suggest the glitter may be off Twitter.” The newsletter links that statement to this article, which clearly does NOT suggest that “the glitter off Twitter.” In fact, the article states–correctly, I might add–”clearly we’re only touching the surface of (Twitter’s) potential as a marketing vehicle.”
The point in the newsletter is completely contradicted by the point in this article. I just think that’s sloppy promotion and reporting on the part of the newsletter author.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
What can I say? One man’s teaser is another man’s sloppy overstatement. The research does suggest that marketers have yet to lead users in this age group to make the leap from following friends to following products or brands. The people sponsoring the research choose to interpret that as a green field for marketing via Twitter. Others may disagree.
As for the teaser– well, it got you to read the article, didn’t it?
June 25th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Your response made me laugh–yes, the e-newsletter caused me to look, primarily because I’m getting tired of people implying erroneous judgments and assumptions about Twitter. (I wrote about people misinterpreting or overlooking Twitter data at demographics on my blog: http://www.experiencetheblog.com/2009/06/twidiots-fact-and-fiction-of-social.html).
The fact teens aren’t drawn to Twitter doesn’t mean it’s failing; one only needs look at Twitter’s growth in the last six months to see it’s clearly filling some need for its users.
Twitter is not primarily a marketing medium, which is why marketers are not successfully encouraging consumers to follow. As a rule, consumers do NOT generally opt into to receive more advertising; in fact, as demonstrated by DVRs, iPods, and ad-blocking software, many consumers are actively trying to avoid more advertising messages. If brands want to be followed and encourage more engagement on Twitter, they have to provide a clear value proposition for users (and not just for the brand.)
Thanks for the discussion!