02/11/2016 Tech Time – TWITTER
#WednesdayWisdom is a new series from Way To Blue where each week we profile a specific platform to help you understand what it is, why you should care, and how you could use it in your own strategy.
You think you know Twitter, but over the next two minutes you’re guaranteed to learn something new.
Twitter is a platform of rapid fire communication, less filtered than it’s rivals, and at its best when it’s users come together around a single event. As Twitter says, “If it’s happening anywhere it’s happening on Twitter.”
Twitter launched in July of 2006, but it wasn’t until 2007 at South by Southwest when Twitter’s popularity exploded. During the festival Twitter’s usage jumped from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000 tweets per day.
Today there are over half a billion tweets per day. Twitter is the 4th largest social network in the world, behind Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Twitter has a monthly active user base of 313 million users (Facebook’s monthly active user base is 1.71 billion). 62% of which are active users on mobile. Over half of which engage directly within the (official) Twitter app. 61% of all Twitter users are between the ages of 16-34.
Why should I care? 
Twitter is the place where anyone anywhere (79% of Twitter’s users live outside the US) can have a voice that can spontaneously start a conversation of national attention. The influence of twitter can be seen and felt by all, which has led to the rise of a new form of influencer beyond the athletes and celebrities that advertisers relied on to sell product before the internet.
When looking for product recommendations 49% of users say they rely on influencers. That’s second to tweets from friends, who 56% of consumers sought for guidance. Research conducted by Twitter shows that those exposed to brand tweets had a 2.7x lift in purchase intent over participants who did not see an advertiser tweet. When exposed to campaign that features both brand and influencer tweets, the lift in purchase intent more than doubles to 5.2x.
What else should you know?
In April of this year, Twitter made the switch from being a “social networking” app to a “news” app within Apple’s app store. This was a strategic move to reposition itself to attract new people and increase visibility amongst smartphone users. As a “news” app, Twitter appears as the #1 free app within that category.
This move should be a sign of confidence that Twitter finally found its identity as a platform and should not just be seen as a sign of free exposure. Would it surprise you to know that 95% of all live TV conversation happens on Twitter? This has led to number of partnerships with some of the largest brands and entertainment companies in the world.
Earlier this year the National Football League and Twitter announced a streaming partnership for Thursday Night Football for 2016 where 10 games would stream live directly on Twitter (web, mobile, and smart TVs). Other partnerships include Bloomberg Media (stream all of the 2016 U.S. Presidential and Vice Presidential live), the NBA, Cheddar TV, Pac-12 Network, The Game Awards, MLB, Discovery, Time Inc., and Vice.
BEST TIME TO TWEET
- If you’re a B2B advertiser you’re likely to see 14% higher engagements Monday through Friday.
- If you’re a B2C advertisers will see 17% higher engagements Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- The best time to post to see the highest number of retweets is 5PM EST.
- You’ll see the highest click-through-rates at 12PM EST & 6PM EST (users are 181% more likely to be on Twitter during their commute).
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