Monday 3 May 2010

Twitter stats - that just don't add up?


Business Insider posted Twitter stats last Friday that I missed because it was a national holiday. And I can tell you, it was well worth missing them, just as it is well worth pointing them out now. There are 33 graphs each telling their own story. Originally published by Edison research, it's a survey conducted among less than 2,000 Americans only

As you may or may not know, I'm a stats lover, a number cruncher, and I like to cross-examine pretty much everything
so I took a few graphs and compared them to others - not all of that makes sense

Twitter is now "as well-known as" Facebook and made a huge leap. Getting close to 100% for both there

It is very unfair to compare (Twitter) usage to having touched (Facebook) but it's done nonetheless. What's the idea there? Is the meaning of having a Facebook profile equal to actually actively using Facebook? I think not! Usage should be compared to usage, and having a profile should be compared to having a profile

The Twitter usage graph seems to contradict the 90-9-1 principle and suggests more like a 40-30-30 principle, where 30% is using Twitter more than once a day

More than 50% of all Twitter users tweets at least once a week from their mobile, and more than half of that does it every day or even more often
Compared to other mobile use that is a lot: 75% reads or writes SMS

It apparently is easier to post 140 characters on a mobile than e.g. write a blog, as this stat cunningly shows (some irony there, as twitter will always win there of course. I predict really life-like outcomes when the iPad were to be considered a mobile platform)

It's interesting to see that 1/3rd of all Tweeps are using, on a daily basis, other social networks than Twitter. That is what can be concluded after comparing the 44% of all social network usage by Twitter people with the daily Twitter usage percentage of 33%

30% of all monthly Twitter users (85% of all tweeps) don't update their status on any social network: that is very strange and I don't know what to make of it but apparently the definition of usage is broad: not updating your Twitter status once a month makes you a monthly user anyway

Finally, spending 10.5 hours per day on Internet, TV, radio or newspaper can only mean that you have no job, or no sex-life. Or neither
The really interesting aspect of that usage is, however, that these same people value Internet a lot higher than TV. Internet is valued 6 times as much as ordinary TV: apparently these people use TV for distraction, and Internet for information, sharing, collaboration.
Although, when it comes to learning about breaking news, people still like TV just as much as Internet

But, reaffirming that first valuation: 79% would prefer Internet over TV if forced to choose
So much for weak ties?

1 reacties:

Django Parx said...

Hi Martin,
I agree with most of what you share here.
One more thing... the media is still... bla-bla-bla!
And it's why facebook will...
" Social Network " is ' A ' platform, campus or whatewver of exchange.
All best,
Django Parx
PS. on facebook, obviously.

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