Trends on Twitter

Lab42 conducted a survey asking 500 Twitter users how they use the service, who they follow and why. Findings were broken down into a captivating infographic, which has some great insights.

70% of Twitter users access the site on a daily basis with 37% accessing Twitter multiple times a day. Out of the 70% that use the site on a daily basis, 42% tweet more than once a day, nearly double of those 23% who tweet on a daily basis. This portrays the addictive nature of Twitter to tweet on a regular basis and how the majority of users are lured in for the long haul.

Interestingly, only 16% of Twitter users accessed Twitter from their mobile application. I expected that most users would access the site using the web, however I thought that there would be a hell of a lot more users who would take advantage of using the mobile app whilst on the go.

Many Twitter users follow brands with 31% of them at least following 1-5 and unsurprisingly the majority (66%) follow them to try and get discounts. Brands are going out of their way like never before to take advantage of the opportunities presented by social media and entice customers. Offering discounts and the chance to participate in contests via social media, increases traffic to their main sites and in effect their profits. Last year, Sony offered 1,600 Twitter followers the chance to build a customised Sony Vaio laptop and get a 10% discount for the product. Considering that the social media campaign was fairly covert, it worked wonders for Sony as they reported an increase in Sony Vaio sales from Twitter in that period of $1.5 million.

Taking into account that pop star Lady Gaga has more followers than the American president Barrack Obama, perhaps shows that the majority of Twitter users are of a younger generation. This can be backed up with the stats that 27% follow SnOOki, a star from the hit MTV US reality TV series Jersey Shore.