More than twice as many adults than teens tap into Twitter.
Survey says… Twitter. And that survey comes from none other than Nielson, the ratings company that is nearly a household word. Of all Internet users polled (out of a sampling of 250,000 people), 6.6 % under 25 use Twitter, while 12.1 percent of Internet users over 25 are tapped into the powerful social network. Additionally, since a full 25 % of all Internet users are under 25, these figures are even more significant than they may seem. I’m not a statistician so I can’t quite decode all this but, according to the Nielson blog, “Twitter.com effectively under-indexes on the youth market by 36 percent.” Another interesting fact from Nielson, et al.… According to Internet “buzz” trends tracked from January 2009 through this July, Twitter has climbed from garnering 0.15 % of Internet buzz to being on equal footing with Facebook. Both social networks have left MySpace in the virtual dust, buzz-wise. All this to say, Twitter is the social network people talk about, as well as the place adults gather. If you’re a business owner marketing to other adults, Twitter is where you want to be. If you’ve read this far and now you’re scratching your head saying “What is Twitter?” that’s understandable. I won’t hold it against you. After all, 12.1 % of Internet users tapped into Twitter still leaves 87-point-something of us uninitiated in the intricacies of the popular (relatively speaking) micro-blog. When it comes to social media, Twitter gets to the point. Say what you want to say, say it in 140 characters or less, and move on. Share links, promote your business, recommend other people, or post a sentence or two about your day. Around 12 to 1 PM, my personal “Twitter stream” (that is, the posts of all the people I “follow”) is inundated with information about what people are having for lunch. And that’s okay. I wouldn’t want to read an entire blog post on the topic, but if you’re taking 140 characters and 10 seconds of my time to tell me you’re having turkey on rye, it’s all good. So, how can Twitter help your business, or even your personal marketing efforts? Twitter connects you with thousands of people, locally and internationally. Surprisingly, you can tell a lot about a person by reading their stream. In just a few minutes, you can decide if you want to strike up a relationship. After a few months on the social network, you may have thousands of followers and people who follow you back, but interact on a personal level with only a few hundred – or even a few dozen. That’s to be expected, although, of course, the more personal relationships you can build in social networking (or even off-line networking, in that little place some of us call real life), the better. Can Twitter work for people marketing a local business? In only three months on the site, I landed three new clients for my writing business, earned a complimentary business coaching session, and made a connection with a local comedian. The latter hasn’t resulted in any work, or even a good article pitch to submit, yet, but I did have the enjoyment of attending a fantastic, free comedy show at a winery on the East End and, dare I say, made a friend! Granted, because I work from home and am geographically-independent, it’s much easier for me to market myself through Twitter. It doesn’t matter if my clients are in Australia, California or Commack. But of the more significant connections I’ve made on the social network, many are local, either from Long Island, the city or Westchester county. Reach out internationally for local results. It really works. Lest this first Business & Technology column here at Long Island Exchange give the impression that Twitter is the *only* worthwhile social network, I want to clarify that point. With the right blend of personal connections, promotional links, information sharing and relationship-building, any social media site can work effectively. This column will help you navigate the complicated Web of social media while keeping you in touch with the latest technology that can help you in your professional life, whether you’re a business owner or an employee. With an emphasis on local businesses, new tech gadgets and, of course, social media, we’ll explore technology not for technology’s sake, but technology for success.
Dawn Allcot E-mail This Page | Follow Us | Return to My Column You can Bookmark & Share this article by clicking here:
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