Twitter Marketing Terminology cont.

Tweep. A nickname used to describe a Twitter user. (Tweep is shorter name than Twitterer
and originates from the terms “Twitter” and “people,” or “peeps.”) Tweeps describes more
than one tweep.
Follower. Someone who has opted in to receive your tweets in their Twitter Steam.
Following. Those who you have opted in to receive tweets from.
Friend. When a mutual Follower/Following relationship exists between two users.
Twitterverse. Describes the Twitter community at large—i.e., the Twitter universe.
Hashtag. The hashtag is a way of identifying a tweet related to a particular subject. The
hashtag protocol is the hash or pound sign (#) directly followed by the word, words, or
characters someone has assigned to that subject—the fewer characters, the better. For
example, the hashtag for this blog will be #TMHAD, an abbreviation for “Twitter Marketing:
An Hour a DayTwitter does not currently release the number of active accounts using the service.
Independent market research companies, however, continually analyze Twitter’s traffic
and growth, which has been substantial. If understanding the definition of Twitter is
any indication, Twitter most certainly has a lot of people’s attention. Sites that monitor
Wikipedia traffic show that the Twitter definition page, or article, jumped from being
the 70th most accessed page in February 2009 to being in the Top 25 of all accessed
pages on Wikipedia for March and April 2009, the latest statistics available at the
time of this writing. Another source estimates that over a million people viewed the
Wikipedia article for Twitter in May 2009. This is substantial when you consider that
there are over three million articles on Wikipedia. The Twitter article on Wikipedia
was created March 11, 2007 and has been repeatedly edited—2,183 times as of this
writing. Nielsen statistics indicate that Twitter experienced an unprecedented 1,382
percent growth rate between February 2008 and February 2009, leaping from 475,000
to 7 million unique monthly visitors in the span of one year. This makes Twitter the
fastest-growing social network for that time period. As of May 2009,
Compete.com estimated Twitter to have 19.7 million unique monthly visitors, which
ranks Twitter as the third-largest social network, behind Facebook and MySpace.
Demographically, Twitter is split closely between male and female audiences.
As of May 2009, Quantcast reported that 55 percent of Twitter users were female. In June 2009, Sysomos, a social media analytics company, measured the
gender breakdown of Twitter at 53 percent female and 47 percent male. For that same time period, Hitwise, a service that tracks data passing through Internet Service
Providers (IS Ps) and measures Twitter.com traffic, came up with similar numbers, citing
the gender breakdown of Twitter as 51.5 percent female and 48.5 percent male.
But a Harvard Business School study released around this same time argued that
Twitter is very “male-centric,” despite the larger number of female users. The study
found that both sexes are more likely to follow more men than they are to follow
women on Twitter, and that men are almost twice as likely to follow other men than
women. Men have 15 percent more followers than women, and men are more likely
to have reciprocal Twitter relationships (Male A follows Male B, who in turn follows
back Male A). Study authors find these results so atypical that they describe them as
“stunning … on a typical online social network, most of the activity is focused around
women—men follow content produced by women they do and do not know, and
women follow content produced by women they know.”Personally, I question whether the Harvard findings will stand up over time, and
I would also like to see a study that analyzes gender and “tweep affinity.” Men may
have more followers, but I think that’s because they view these relationships in either a
casual or business way, whereas women take their Twitter relationships more seriously,
and more loyally and frequently tweet among themselves. There’s a whole community
of interconnected moms on Twitter. I believe the strength of these tweep affinities is
going to matter more over time than sheer numbers indicate.
When it comes to age, there’s some disparity in the statistics. Some say that
Twitter, like other social networks, is rooted firmly in the 18-to-34 demographic,
claiming this bracket accounts for approximately 47 percent of all its users. Other
sources say that Twitter users predominantly fall into the 35- to 49-year-old age
bracket, which accounts for 35 percent. In the meantime, a surprisingly large number
of seniors tweet, accounting for 21 percent of the Twitter population. Almost all
researchers agree, however, that Twitter is not for the youth set, with only 1 percent
of Twitter users falling under the age of 17.
What Twitter Is Not
Sometimes explaining Twitter in the context of what it’s not helps to clarify things.
Twitter isn’t accessible only on the Web. T witter users can communicate via cell phone, mobile
devices, or desktop applications.
Twitter isn’t the “new” email or cell phone. T witter’s 140-character limitation is just that—
limiting. For rapid-fire, short communications, Twitter is useful. However, email and
telephones can still do a lot more than Twitter can. Twitter is just another tool in the
digital communicator’s toolkit.
Twitter isn’t a form of instant messenger. A lthough it’s true that Twitter shares many of the
same characteristics as instant messaging or chat applications, the two operate using
different technology, offer different functionality, and serve different purposes.
Twitter isn’t a micro version of your blog. A lthough many users exploit Twitter to tease and
link to every new blog post, using Twitter only in this manner is considered poor practice.
Your tweets should be varied, with original content. Otherwise, why would anyone
else want to read them?
Twitter isn’t private by any means. Unless you lock them down, be prepared for your tweets
to be read, responded to, and possibly forwarded (retweeted) by perfect strangers. It’s
almost pointless to be on Twitter and lock down your tweets unless you never want to
be engaged by the greater community—the Twitterverse. This piece of advice, however,
does not apply to direct messages, which are private.
Twitter isn’t a replacement for Facebook, MySpace, or other social networks. R ather, Twitter can be a
complement to social networks, as well as a different, albeit powerful, standalone tool.