Filed under: Business, Internet, Social Software, Analysis, web 2.0, Web
Twitter statistics that make you go "hmmmm"
Something feels a little wrong about having to rely on a company that defines itself as a social media analyst to discover fully 15% of the Twitter users that follow more than 2,000 accounts on the social network identify themselves as "social media marketers." that of the people who identify themselves as marketers, 15% follow more than 2,000 people compared to 0.3% of total Twitter users following more than 2,000 people. Yet this is one in a set of ten interesting statistics to come out of a report by social media analysis company Sysomos on Twitter usage.
A summary of the 10 most interesting points from Sysomos' report was done by the Rohit Bhargava, and includes info-nuggets like the fact that over half of all Twitter accounts are inactive (have not posted an update in over a week), and that the top 5% of accounts by volume of updates are responsible for 75% of the updates published on the site. Unfortunately, some of the statistics given are tenuous at best. For example, the report contains a claim that 65% of Twitter users are under the age of 25, but as Bhargava points out, less than 1% of Twitter users actually disclose their age.
Putting together meaningful statistics on Twitter is an admirable, but near impossible task. There are simply too many variables, and not enough data to go on; Twitter's minimalist approach doesn't give analysts much to go on. Further, as David Pogue recently pointed out, users can easily change their usernames, significantly muddying the water.
So, what do you think - can we trust the numbers that are put out by social media analysis companies? Is this information useful, or is it akin to reading tea leaves?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
216 said 8:35AM on 7-10-2009
"the top 5% of accounts by volume of updates are responsible for 75% of the updates published on the site"
That seems believable to me. I have a twitter account, made like 3 tweets, then never looked back. I have a friend, has twitterberry on her phone, tweets atleast 3-4 times an hour, everyday, without fail. If anything, when she goes 2-3 hours without tweeting, she might have a serious problem on her hands haha.
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jonathan.riggall said 8:55AM on 7-10-2009
The 15% doesn't refer to all users who follow over 2000 people, but the percentage of users who call themselves marketers. 15% of marketers follow over 2000 people... so as a group, marketers are more likely to follow rick-dickulous amounts of people, I suppose.
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Jason Clarke said 12:27PM on 7-10-2009
Thanks - the wording on the summary post I was linking to is different than that in the source report. I will update the post.
Das said 9:12AM on 7-10-2009
I really have no idea why anyone uses this service, who cares what anyone is doing, anywhere at any time. I can turn on the news to find out the important items of the day.
What a waste of technology.
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Lyn said 5:59PM on 7-27-2009
I agree
motoxo said 10:47AM on 7-10-2009
you can deduct many items when you have a marketing business.
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mike k. said 12:19PM on 7-10-2009
The stat about over half of the accounts are "inactive" is totally bogus. The reason why twitter is so big now is because celebs or notable people disperse information. The public is notoriously a bunch of consumers of this information.
I wouldn't say they are inactive, i'd say they are lurking, and consuming information instead of posting their own info. For a long time i only read twitter updates, and while i considered myself an 'active' user by reading updates, I didn't post anything myself, nor did I feel the need to, since no one would hear me (considered i mainly followed famous people that i had no need to tweet back to)
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acme said 1:14PM on 7-10-2009
who cares?
whats with the stat whore fascination with everything? twitter needs to go away
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Mark Evans said 8:59AM on 7-11-2009
Jason,
Thanks for mentioning the Sysomos report. While Twitter is a dynamic and fast-growing service, we believe our analysis is comprehensive given we indexed data from 11.5 million Twitter accounts. If you have suggestions and/or feedback about how we can improve our future reports on Twitter, please let us know.
Mark
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Lyn said 6:01PM on 7-27-2009
Ditto
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thedivinemisswhite said 7:53AM on 7-29-2009
fortunately I like tea
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