Twitter predictions earlier this year was for Twitter to have about 18 million users by the end of 2009
Although there is a slight dip in October - they have already passed 23 million
Facebook surges to nearly 129 million with the biggest growth again coming from India and China (25% increase in 3 months)
By comparison MySpace dropped 65% to 59 million users
graphs from compete.com
from sociableblog.com
1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter use TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)
2.Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you’ll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.
3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?
4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your house email list. Invite these people to join.
5. Utilize Twitter tools, plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.
6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.
7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you’re at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you’re doing and invite people to visit you in person.
9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.
10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep you and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.
You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven’t already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.
And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don’t only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.
About The Author : Jason OConnor is a Web consultant. He writes for The Net Gazette, a Web marketing newsletter, and owns Oak Web Works, LLC, a Web design and marketing company.
In December 2008 the 18- to 24-year-old age group accounted for 19% of Twitter users. In September 2009 that figure has leapt to 37% with 25- to 34-year-olds also rising swiftly from 20% to 31%.
The reports said that age is a strong independent predictor for use of Twitter and other services with a status update feature. Overall, internet users age 18-44 have rapidly taken up Twitter over the past nine months whereas internet users ages 45 and older are slower to adopt.
The research also found that the more devices people have the more likely they are to use Twitter. Around 40% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices, and 10% of internet users with one device.
The same is true for wireless connections. As of September 2009, 54% of internet users have a wireless connection to web via a laptop, mobile phone, games console or other mobile device. Of those, 25% use Twitter or another service up from 14% of wireless users in December 2008.
The Pew report said: "Statistical analysis also shows that wireless access is an independent factor in predicting whether someone uses Twitter or another status update service.
"It is not simply because this group is likely to be young or tech-savvy. Owning and using a wireless internet device makes an internet user significantly more likely to tweet."
As Facebook spreads its user base to a broader cross spectrum of society the transition of MySpace to an increasingly youth and entertainment centred social networking site continues apace. The average age of its users fell from 27 to 26.
Facebook was the only social networking service sited by the research to see the average age of its rise. Professional social networking site LinkedIn like MySpace also saw its fall 40 to 39.
The research also found that Twitter attracts users of other social networking sites. Those already using MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn are likely to also use Twitter: 35%, compared to 6% of internet users who do not use such sites.
The Pew Internet survey is based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between August and September 2009, among a sample of 2,253 adults who were 18 and older.
Comscore worldwide data says Digg, Twitter and Facebook have 32 million, 58 million and 411 million unique monthly visitors (September 2009), respectively. Google Trends says much the same thing, but the growth over time is fascinating visually. We started with Digg, then added Twitter, and then added Facebook. In the end, Digg and Twitter are just footnote blips in the chart.
About a third of all Internet users worldwide visited Facebook in September 2009, says Comscore. A year ago it was 17%. And what about Digg? They grew from 15 million worldwide unique visitors a year ago to 32 million today. And they tripled page views to 171 million. So it’s not really about Digg doing anything wrong. They just pale in comparison to the guys currently in the spotlight – Twitter and Facebook.
If you could only use one service, which one would you choose? I’d be unhappy about the forced decision, but I’d go with Twitter, even with all its flaws.
ref: TechCrunch
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