Archive for April, 2010
Twitter Usage in America, Dive into the Data
Edison Research is launching their “Twitter Usage in America 2010″ report today with a live webinar. The report is part of their full Internet & Multimedia Study and includes some quality data. Here are some of the highlights:
- “The percentage of Americans who are familiar with Twitter has surged from 5% in 2008 to 87% in 2010.” We can all blame CNN’s Rick Sanchez for this.
- There are really only 17 million Americans using Twitter. The inflated number of accounts represents SPAM accounts and users with multiple accounts.
- “The percentage of Twitter users who are African-Americans in the current U.S. population… stands at roughly 25%.”
- “The majority of Twitter users are “lurkers,” passively following and reading the updates of others without contributing updates of their own.”
- “The percentage of Twitter users who follow brands is more than three times higher than similar behavior expressed by social networking users in general.”
- “A significantly higher proportion of Twitter users update their social networking profiles – and access Twitter – using mobile phones than the average user of other social networking sites and services.”
- “Only 7% of Americans are aware of location based social networks”
- “Twitter users are more likely to have improved their financial situation in the past year compared to the total population (32% to 18%)”
Twitter Users are Unique
There are still, relatively, very few of us living and breathing Twitter on a regular basis (and sharing our breakfast choices). The users driving the content on Twitter are not reflective of social networking users as a whole. They are very much early adopters and more comfortable interacting with brands. This is great for marketers looking to engage influencers.
“The fact that Twitter users are far more likely to follow brands and engage in brand conversations makes them responsive to marketing, but also considerably different to mainstream Americans,” said Tom Webster, VP Strategy adn Marketing at Edison Research.
Marketers can clearly find in Twitter a healthy community of influencers ready to engage. But as Tom points out, Twitter users are a bit of a different breed. Marketing strategies that work well on Twitter may not hold true within other communities. Many marketers would no doubt agree with this assessment, but it is very interesting to dive into some of the data behind it.
Twitter Has A Strong Black Community
Why are so many African Americans on Twitter (There are Black People on Twitter)? Who knows. Why do so many white people love Frisbee Sports? It does not really matter why, but it’s important as marketers to understand the demographics of the channels we are marketing in. Depending on the brand in question, this may or may not be important to your marketing. Nevertheless, this demonstrated even more that Twitter is an outlier.
And now for a couple surprising numbers…
Twitter Users Make More Money?
If you were on Twitter in the past year, you had a significantly higher chance of improving your financial situation. The question is why? Is it because Twitter users are more likely to be business owners? Entrepreneurs?
“WTF is Twitter?” is so 2009
Oprah, Ashton, The Real Shaq oh my. Thanks to some celebrity and media love affairs with the blue bird in question, Twitter has shockingly infiltrated 87% of American brains. To jump from 5% to 87% in 2 years is quite the leap. So while 17 million Americans are the only ones truly using the service, hundreds of millions know we are here. Twitter can continue to have a large influence (as large as Facebook) on what society talks about with a much smaller core user group.
Thanks to Edison for the great data. Check out the the webinar or download the full report.
The Beauty About the Death of the Music Store
The evolution of music sales over the past 2 decades has been a clear one. As peer to peer software like Napster devastated destination music stores, our music purchases moved closer to home.
First on our computers, then phones, and soon you will be able to buy tracks the second you hear them in your car (this seems so obvious to me, the music industry should make it happen sooner).
The music industry has been fighting to keep their old model, but what they should be doing is fighting to create more impulsive music buying opportunity. If you let me buy my music where I first hear it, when I am most amazed by a new sound, you dramatically increase your conversion.
I grew up buying tapes at local music shops. When I was a teenager it was all CD’s from the national chain store in the mall. Napster spread my first year in college and my music taste exploded because of the wealth of options now available at my fingertips. How refreshing right? I didn’t have to rely on local radio or the kids from my home town to hear about new music.
I use iTunes for all my music today (making me an honest man again). But it was never about having the money to afford music. It is about accessibility. When I can watch an episode of House, use Shazam to figure out the closing credit song, and buy that song on my phone, the sales cycle get dramatically short and simple. It goes form weeks to seconds. Impulse.
The music shops of the past were destinations. It was pure point of sale music. You physically went somewhere to browse the music, to talk about the music, to buy the music.
Today even the point of sale music is more impulsive.
- You purchase album cards that you can use to download digital versions from Office Depot.
- You get free downloads included with your Xbox game, that then open you up to new artists.
- And occasionally you buy a CD, but probably from the counter at your local Starbucks.
If we hear music we like at a bar or coffee shop or on a commercial, we go get it online. The physical stores are marginalized. The digital product reigns. And our concept of consuming the media has completely evolved. We stream music more and more, owning becomes less important. We
- We often stream music instead of purchasing it
- We create more and more content featuring music (playlists, podcasts, videos)
- We buy ring tones and video game soundtracks
Much of the community and discussion around music lives largely online and consumers seem the happier for it.
In the long run this evolution and disruption of the music industry is good. Consumers get more out of it. They get to find more great music. And musicians, while getting the short end of the stick with Napster piracy, seem to be skipping the music oligarchies and claiming back their connection with fans through unique products, touring, and digital consumer relationships.
A few examples of how the music industry could accelerate the impulse music buying trend:
- Buy Shazam, improve it’s purchasing options, do deals to include it on all cell phones, iPads, TV’s, toasters, etc.
- Fully embrace users that want to incorporate music into videos and podcasts, work with Youtube et all to get buying links on any unlicensed works
- Work with OnStar or XM Radio or electronics makers to get easy music sales in every new car
- Email concert goers with links to buy the live show, while they are at the concert
I hope that I am just repeating what music executives already know and that all of this is in motion. I hope.
What do you think? Is the music industry better off? Will movies be immune to the same fate?
Original Image from Shutterstock.com
4 Reasons Why PR Agencies Are Taking Over Social Media
PR agencies will inevitably own the social media space for big brands. They simply have the right skill set and the right billing model. They have the ability to buy the social media talent needed. And they have something that other social media agencies do not – bigger, more time tested resources for relationship building and research.
1. PR Does Story Telling
At the most basic of levels, writing and story telling is the heart of public relations. It is important to be able to spin an angle, develop a company’s story in a news worthy format, or simply compose a narrative through press releases and conversations.
2. PR Does Relationship Building
Maintaining connections with journalists is old PR (and still important). Today companies need to maintain relationships with influencers. This is a larger scale. These influencers are more numerous and more varied than their journalist counterparts. There are A, B, and C list bloggers, Twitterati, Youtube Stars and the list goes on. Other marketing segments have a lot to learn in this arena.
3. PR Does Crisis Management
The publicity game works both ways, for better or worse. They are out there to push the good, but even more importantly sometimes is having a team to react quickly when bad press hits. This is even more important within social media, where the bad can spread at a blistering pace. No other segment of the marketing community is built well to deal with this exact situation.
4. PR Has the Right Billing Model
All marketing companies share an hourly billing model, but PR bills for ongoing work, not an end product. PR agencies are prepared for a constant effort to get earned media to the right audience, to book event publicity, to leverage partnerships, to cultivate longer term relationships with stakeholders and media.
What PR agencies do you think are leading the way in taking over social media for big brands?
Image Credit ShutterStock.com
