Who would have thought that 140 characters or less would become one of the hottest things to do on the internet just 10 years ago? Twitter has become the go-to place on the internet to exchange opinions and ideas in real time about TV, radio, or life in general.
As of 2014, Twitter was the fifth most popular social network on the internet.
Twitter Growth
Although Twitter has lost some ground since 2012 to sites like Pinterest and Instagram, it has been able to achieve some phenomenal growth. Millennials in particular are flocking to Twitter in droves and those who make more than $50k per year are highly active on the site.
- From it’s launch in July 2006 to the 2007 South By Southwest music festival, Twitter was receiving about 20,000 tweets per day.
- After SXSW, Twitter tripled in volume with 60,000 tweets per day.
- By the end of 2007, Twitter was receiving 400,000 tweets per quarter.
- In 2008, there were 3 million registered accounts on the social network that were generated 1.25 million tweets per day.
- Between 2008-2009, Twitter grew by 5 million registered accounts for a total of 8 million.
- It took over 3 years for Twitter to reach the 1 billionth tweet that was sent out from a registered account.
- Between 2009-2012, 192 million new account were created on Twitter.
- 40%. That’s the percentage of accounts on Twitter that have never sent out a single tweet.
- Saudi Arabia is the fastest growing nation for Twitter, experiencing an average of 300% annual growth.
Twitter is a little different than the other social networks due to the fact that people can be active on the site, but never send out an actual tweet. That’s because people can follow other accounts to stay up to date with what is going on. There are some accounts on Twitter that have more followers than countries have populations. It has become the one place on the internet where people can actually talk to other people, brands, businesses, or family all at the same time. As more of the world becomes connected, the saturation of Twitter is bound to increase as well.
Has Twitter Stalled Out In Some Markets?
- 23%. That’s the percentage of all internet users who engaged with Twitter at some point in time in 2014.
- From 2013-2014, Twitter’s audience rose by 27.7%. The site went from 18% engagement to 23% engagement.
- Men [24%] are slightly more likely to be on Twitter than women [21%].
- The 18-29 age demographic is the most likely to be active on Twitter, with 37% of internet users in this age group active on the site.
- People with higher levels of education are more likely to be active on Twitter. 16% of high school graduates are on Twitter compared to 30% of college graduates.
- 1 in 4 people who live in an urban environment are on Twitter compared to 1 in 6 people who live in rural environments.
Twitter is still growing strong. If any social media site has stalled out, it would be Facebook. Twitter is expected to grow by up to 10% every year, even in its established markets, to continue growing while Facebook is large enough that only emerging markets will likely bring it growth. Twitter might be ranked #5 in all online adults right now, but as more engagement happens on multimedia channels, that may change very rapidly. Brands and businesses are already noticing this shift and adapting to it.
Twitter Has Become A Business Magnet
- 16% of customers use Twitter to interact with businesses on a regular basis.
- Twitter is ranked #2 as a top performing social media network for marketing efforts with more than 45% of businesses listing it as their second best performing site.
- About 11% of businesses list Twitter as their top performing social media marketing effort and another 17% list it as their third best option.
- With an audience of 48 million consumers, Twitter has the potential to reach targets on a one-to-one basis.
- In Q3 2014, consumer engagement with brand tweets was up 83% over Q4 2013.
- 70%. That’s the percentage of brand tweets that are replies in a conversation or a question asked of a brand.
- Brands retweet just 6% of the time.
- 75% of businesses will either tweet or retweet items at least 3x per day.
- Tweets with hashtags and photographs get more interaction than those without them.
- 98% of the world’s top rated brands have at least one Twitter channel.
- This has all helped Twitter to grow to the point that 340 million tweets are sent every day.
More tweets are sent out every day right now than Twitter had over the course of an entire year in its first 24 months of existence. Brands like YouTube are dominating Twitter with 19 million followers. Although the average person has only 126 followers, the average business has over 14,000 Twitter followers. With 91% of Millennials regularly talking about brands online, the hashtags on the site make it possible for everyone to follow a conversation on a regular basis. This growth has really helped to connect businesses, customers, and trends together in a cohesive manner.
Third Party Applications Will Keep Fueling Twitter Growth
- 75%. That’s the percentage of Twitter traffic that comes from a third-party application.
- The total percentage of tweets that have been sent through third-party apps: 60%.
- 3 out of 4 heads of state are active on Twitter thanks to the mobile platforms and third party apps.
- 25 billion tweets were sent through Twitter in 2010.
- Infographics shared on Twitter get 832% more retweets than images and articles.
- The estimated value of Twitter: $11 billion.
- Despite all of this growth, the average Twitter user only spends 21 minutes per month on the site.
- 92% of the retweets that happen are because of content that is deemed to be “interesting.”
- There are more than 181k accounts on Twitter that use the term “social media” in their bio.
Twitter has finally found its niche. Instead of being the all-in-one platform like Facebook is or the arts and crafts platform that Pinterest is, Twitter has become the brand engagement social network. This has allowed the site to finally start experiencing growth trends that other sites have seen in the past. Add in the commentary from politics, television shows, or movies and Twitter has effectively become the “water cooler” of the internet where everyone talks to each other so everyone can stay connected.
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here. Brandon is currently the CEO of Aided.