We’ve all seen eye-popping statistics about the growth of social media. They read like this…

• “If MySpace was a country, it would be the 5^th largest in the world.”
• “In 2006 there were 2.7 billion Google searches per month; today, there are 31 billion.”
• “The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992, now the number of text messages sent every day exceeds the population of the planet.”

And the list goes on. To be sure, there is a tremendous amount of online activity, but does it reach your target market, and more importantly, does it influence them? In our latest TrendTruth, FGI Research set out to determine the current reach and influence of social media’s newest star, Twitter.

Twitter: an Introduction
Twitter is a simple social networking channel whereby members can “Tweet” about themselves, and tune in to other Tweets using any device that can access the Internet. Twitter is making its mark on the Internet this year, boasting just over 5 million members. However, recent media studies indicate that Twitter’s audience retention rate currently lags behind Facebook and MySpace. So, while Twitter’s long term audience size is unclear, FGI Research sought out to understand a few critical things about today’s Twitter audience. Among other things, we asked of Twitter users the following: 1) who do you follow, and 2) do they influence you? Our research yielded several compelling findings.

How Consumers Use Twitter
Among Twitter users, over 80% actively follow other people. The majority of people they follow are friends, family members and celebrities. However, a significant number of Twitter users also follow businesses (38%), other organizations (23%) and political figures (29%). If these trends hold during Twitter’s audience growth phase, Twitter may become a table-stakes communications channel for businesses and other organizations to reach their target markets. But will this channel influence their target markets?

How Does Twitter Influence Purchases
Among Twitter users who follow other people and organizations, the channel does appear to have an emerging, albeit not overwhelming influence on their opinions and purchase decisions. Below are the top two box (high influence and very high influence) percentages for several important categories:

• 26% are influenced in their selection of restaurants
• 23% are influenced in their purchase of electronics
• 20% are influenced in their political opinions
• 17% are influenced in their purchase of household goods
• 16% are influenced in their purchase of groceries
• 16% are influenced in their purchase of clothing
• 14% are influenced in their purchase of automobiles

Who Uses Twitter?
Of course, every business and organization is different with respect to their products, services and target audiences. Some industries must implement Twitter initiatives more quickly than others. When determining if your audience is right for Twitter, a simple first step should be a demographic analysis of Twitter users. The chart below provides a breakout of Twitter users by age, income, and gender.

Actionable Insights
As with any area of research, the “Twitter question” has the potential to spark a lot more debate and will no doubt inspire further inquiries. As for what you can do with this data right now, try to keep in mind the audience that is already on Twitter. Shape your marketing efforts to reflect that knowledge. And when you want to learn more about who your followers are, what they want to know, and how you can target their needs, turn to robust and innovative research techniques: online survey data, social media monitoring, and human research experts who will uncover the real meaning of all that data.

Next Steps You Can Take

Survey Methods
Date of Study: 12/21/2009
Total Responders: 276
Sample Source: FGI SmartPanel

• 156,000,000 The average number of Tweets per year on Twitter
• 200,000,000 The number of active Facebook users
• 133,000,000 The number of active blogs
• 346,000,000 The number of people who read blogs

As I think we can all agree, today’s market research toolbox must include some type of social media monitoring solution, including sentiment mining and the ability to quantitatively validate key social media trends.

David Wilson
CEO
FGI Research