Twitter – Interesting Statistics on Users
By Anna Johnson on December 24th, 2008HubSpot has released its ‘State of the Twittersphere – Q4 2008′ report and its research reveals some fascinating insights into Twitter and its users. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights…
Firstly, the vast majority of Twitter users – 70 percent – are new, having joined this year. In fact, 20 percent have joined in just the last 60 days!
In addition, around 5-10 thousand new accounts are opened per day and the average Twitter user has been on Twitter for 275 days.
In terms of how many followers Twitter users tend to have:
- 9 percent of Twitter users have no followers
- 35 percent of Twitter users have 10 or fewer followers
- 5 percent of all Twitter users have more than 250 followers
- 0.8 percent have more than 1,000.
There is, however, a strong correlation between how many people you follow and how many followers you have.
Twitter usage peaks on Wednesdays and Thursdays, with usage rising from Sunday to Tuesday and dipping from Friday to Saturday.
HubSpot’s research is based on data from Twitter Grader, HubSpot’s own site for grading Twitter users based on factors such as how many followers they have, the reach of the people who follow them, and how often they post.
So far, Twitter Grader has compiled data on over 500,000 Twitter accounts, an estimated 10 percent of all Twitter users. It’s not apparent whether this sample is statistically representative of all Twitter users, but as TechCrunch points out, until Twitter releases its own report, this is the best information we have.
So, if true, what does all this tell us? Well, it indicates that Twitter is growing fast and still firmly in an early adoption stage. Most users are still finding their feet and probably still wondering how Twitter fits into their lives, and if they’re marketers, how it fits into their businesses.
Various Internet marketers have seen a boost in traffic and conversions from using Twitter. That’s logical. Twitter gives you exposure to people, allows you to build a connection with them, and also provides a means of communicating new offers to them.
As Twitter grows and evolves, however – and Twitter itself works out how to make money – it remains to be seen how Twitter performs long term as a medium for marketing (whether for ‘soft sell’ relationship building… or ‘hard sell’ offer based marketing).
Sources: Erick Schonfeld, “The State Of The Twittersphere (HubSpot Edition),” TechCrunch, on December 22, 2008, HubSpot, “State of the Twittersphere – Q4 2008 Report,” HubSpot, December 22, 2008
