I came across a great study by Hubspot today entitled 'The state of the Twittersphere'
The report centers around the activity of people of Twitter such as; dormant accounts, average tweets per day, average number of followers etc and gives a great overview of the usage of Twitter today...
Below are some of the main highlights i have picked out:
Twitter user base stats
In an effort to quantify exactly how many dormant accounts exist, they labeled users as inactive if they satisfy all of the following conditions:
• Fewer than 10 followers
• Fewer than 10 friends
• Fewer than 10 updates
By this definition, 9.06% of all Twitter users are inactive.
• 24.14% of users have a bio in their profile
• 31.32% of users have a location in their profile
• 20.21% of users have a homepage URL in their profile
• 45.12% of users have tweeted at least once
• 47.29% of users have at least one follower
• 44.50% of users are following at least one account
Though they have noticed that those users who are actively using Twitter do so on a regular basis.
• The average user tweets .97 times per day
• The average user has tweeted 119.34 times in total
• The average user has a following-to-follower ratio of .7738
Stats on Tweets
When we look at the content of tweets that are posted by users they see that users are frequently using Twitter to interact and communicate with other users rather than just answer the "What are you doing?" question.
• 1.44% of all tweets are retweets
• 37.95% of all tweets contain an "@" symbol (mentions)
• 33.44% of all tweets start with an "@" symbol (replies)
They also see that many users are reaching the 140-character limit in an attempt to get as much content as possible into every update.
Top 20 Geographical locations
Because the location field on Twitter profiles does not contain any structured data (Twitter does not require people to separate city from state or province, etc.) it is hard to do any detailed analysis on this data.
However, the list of the top thirty most common phrases people type into their location section on their bio shows that Twitter seems to be popular in major English-speaking cities.
The top 20 locations are as below:
London
Los Angeles
Chicago
New York
San Francisco
Toronto
Atlanta
Seattle
Boston
Austin
Sydney
San Diego
Washington, DC
Melbourne
Portland
Houston
Vancouver
Dallas
Brooklyn
Philadelphia
Sydney is no. 11 !!!
You can read the study in full here: http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/sotwitter09.pdf
The state of the Twittersphere....
How to turn around an awkward conversation
I'm in a bar on a Thursday night waiting to get served by a red-headed goth waitress with a nose ring and star tattoos adorning her exposed gut when i meet 'Dave'....
Zoe: Yep.
Zoe: How very perceptive of you....
We've all been there.
It's horrible to be stuck in a conversation that is going in the wrong direction.
An incorrect flirtation, awkward silence or simply nothing to say can signal danger ahead and in most scenarios you'll make an excuse and walk away never to speak to them again and only remember them as the passing freak in the night....
But it doesn't have to be that way.
...Meet 'Matt'
Zoe: Hi.
Matt: I'm Matt.
Zoe: Nice to meet you Matt, I'm Zoe.
Matt: So what do you do?
Matt: I work in the ad industry too, how bizarre! So what brings you here tonight?
Matt: Cool. Can i buy you a drink?
Zoe: Yeah that would be great, thanks.
Matt: So what kind of advertising do you do?
Zoe: Digital basically...
Zoe: Yes i am....you?
Matt: Me too! I'll have to follow you...So what do you think about Twitter?
And so the conversation moves to a mutually happy place where they both feel involved and comfortable....(i.e. not awkward)
Now flip this situation from a Thursday night in a bar between two people to an online environment between a brand and a consumer.
Big ask i know :-) but try to imagine it becauase it really is that simple.
Social media, social networks and socialising online is the buzz of the moment and clients are desperate to jump on board and be part of trend...
So desperate in fact, that they go running up to these consumers and try to start conversations which invariably turn out to be painfully awkward because of an incorrect flirtation, awkward silence or simply nothing to say.
The consumer then runs away, never to speak to you again and they will forever remember you as the 'passing freak in the night'...
But if you're interesting, entertaining and have something to say (like Matt) then you could start a beautiful, mutually beneficial friendship.
All you need to do is think of your consumers as people, not consumers....have human conversations, entertain them, compliment them, involve them, be interesting, have a topic of conversation, laugh together and have fun with it...!
As a wise man once said "you're only as a good as your last piece of content"....or your last conversation topic/content.
Be a 'Matt' not a 'Dave'.
(* Conversations with Dave and Matt were based on real life scenarios but names were changed!)
What 'Cloud Computing' means for you, me & our clients...
- I upload my photos and videos onto Facebook & Flickr
- My emails are all housed within Gmail
- My CV is set up within Linked In, as are my business contacts.
- I publish my blog and house all my blog content within Blogger.com.
- I save my favourite blogs, news and updates within my iGoogle page.
This is known as 'Cloud Computing'.
So what?
Cloud Computing has been talked about for years, the concept is not new or particularly ground breaking, however, whilst it has been a topic of conversation for IT geeks, tech nerds and everyone within silicon valley for the past few years, it's only now that it is starting to spill into the advertising and marketing arena.
Why?
......because now consumers are jumping on the bandwagon, whether they know it or not.
As a consumer, it doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a Mac or a mobile phone or a BlackBerry – or any new device that doesn't yet exist – you can get access to the cloud.
Cloud computing is liberating people from their computers as now they can access everything, anywhere, anytime...
Already, some people leave their laptops at home when traveling on business since their smartphones carry the load.
In 5 years time this will be the norm as mobile devices, powered by cloud computing, wifi and 3G offer as rich experience as today's computers.
Essentially cloud computing is a driving force behind device convergence and currently the Smartphone or iPhones of the world are leading the way....
So how mobile savvy are you? How accessible is your brand? How many touchpoints do you offer? Are you available anywhere at anytime?......I doubt it, you might have a website, a call centre and a branch but do you have a .mobi site too?
Too often, mobile is an afterthought rather than the focal point when it comes to digital marketing but that shouldn't be the case.
Change the way you see mobile and reframe the opportunity because mobile internet usage and convergence is moving at a lightening pace, made even faster by the release yesterday of the iPhone which has subsequently lowered the cost of the original iPhone to $99 (US) - aka a lower barrier to entry to become an iPhone owner....
We all know that iPhone owners interact more than 5x as much with mobile internet and services than other phone users, however, this trend is widening out to incorporate Smartphone owners of any model. With the cost of these models falling as a result of the rapidity of new releases, soon they will be ubiquitous...
So maybe you should be ubiquitous too....?
Ten years from now, we will laugh at people who still take laptops on business trips....
Gaming consoles the saviours of broadcasters?
The claim made by Steve Spielberg that Project Natal would open up the world of gaming to a wider audience, outside of the usual suspects, has already reached the ears of the broadcasters and they are buying into it, and now responding.
Today, Sky (equivalent of Foxtel) in the UK have launched their TV-on-demand service 'Sky Player' on Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform.
This move is significant and will help kick-start a rush of content owners and broadcasters keen to get on board the growing games console market.
From October 2009, Xbox Live will offer the Sky Player, including live pay-TV channels such as Sky Sports and an on-demand library of programmes, movies, news and sport.
The deal will allow Xbox Live users to sign up to a number of subscription packages, to be revealed closer to launch, as well as watch programming on a pay-per-view basis.
The move is part of Sky’s continuing strategy to extend its services across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience and grow its customer base above and beyond the traditional TV set.
Sky follows the BBC, which has already launched its iPlayer on the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3, but it’s the first broadcaster to move onto the Xbox Live platform, now tipped to grow dramatically as a result of Project Natal.
These significant partnerships come as broadcasters push on-demand services from the PC to the TV, and industry experts predict games consoles will be the next platform to drive this content as more are connected to the internet.
Last year 12.2m Xbox consoles were connected to the internet, and this is expected to grow by 36% to 16.7m globally in 2009.
This represents huge opportunities for content companies and broadcasters looking to extend their reach and boost monetisation in the face of declining standard TV audiences and advertising spends, they now have the chance to monetise on-demand services on a much larger scale....
A quote from Andy Taylor, digital media director at production company All3Media, said, “Games consoles are the next natural step for broadcasters looking at other ways to get their on-demand content onto TV.”
Ultimately, broadcasters wants to get content to viewers wherever they are, whether that’s TV, online or Xbox....
Great quote from Seth Godin
"It’s easy and hopeful and exciting to start something, but challenging and often painful to finish it"
Project Natal is unveiled....
Microsoft has unveiled it's new Xbox user interface aka Project Natal at the E3 gaming conference in the US.
The interface can be likened to the Wii....but on steroids.
The point of note is that the interface recognises and responds to the movement of a players entire body, as opposed to simply hand and wrist movements.
It also has voice recognition, motion sensors, responds to players moods based on tonality and has the ability to interact at a human level...
This is the stuff that science fiction writers have only dreamed about and it works!
Project Natal has the potential to revolutionise game playing and will, no doubt, expand the reach of the gaming world beyond just nerds and spotty teenage boys...this has mass appeal....
So what could it mean for advertisers???
A few things that are already jumping out are the possibilities for fashion brands - Microsoft demonstrated a personalised avatar with the players exact proportions and colouring trying on dresses on the Xbox in the privacy of her own home..
And what about Movies?
Steve Spielberg has even been raving about it and promoting it....
He currently designs games for EA and now has the freedom and creative license to take his games to another level - could this mean no more cinemas with movies screened on consoles?
Imagine watching movies, shopping, looking inside a car at a virtual dealership, viewing houses etc...all in the privacy of your own home and with the ability to share these experiences with your friends?
This is exciting!