The Tendo View

I signed up for a Twitter account at least six months ago, but I haven’t sent a tweet yet. I only have seven followers, all of whom are friends, and I’m following a handful of people, plus CNN, my high school, and Tendo. In reality, I’m not actively following anyone because I rarely log on to Twitter.com and I don’t receive tweets on my mobile phone.

More and more, I’m starting to think I’m in the minority. Stats from a new eMarketer report support my “being left in the dust” theory. In early 2009, Twitter’s U.S. site traffic was a few million unique monthly visitors; by June it was more than 20 million. And that doesn’t take into account the users who send and read tweets via mobile devices and widgets.

eMarketer also predicts that if Twitter successfully shifts its focus in 2010 from audience building to revenue generation (read more about that and the company’s new “Promoted Tweets” strategy here), its adult users will grow to 36 million by 2012.

Here are some other interesting Twitter stats:

• Many 2009 Fortune 500 companies have Twitter accounts (though these stats don’t reveal the extent of engagement with Twitter): 27% of companies ranked 1-100; 20% of companies ranked 101-200; 18% of companies ranked 201-300; 16% of companies ranked 301-400; and 19% of companies ranked 401-500. (Source: Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research and Financial Insite Inc., “The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” February 23, 2010)
• A February 2010 Pew research report found that 14% of Millenials (ages 18-29) are on Twitter and 10% of Gen X-ers (ages 30-45).
• In August 2008, 29% of U.S. Internet users were using social networks, and 6% were using Twitter. By September 2009, 47% were using social networks and 19% were using Twitter. (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Twitter and Status Updating, Fall 2009,” October 21, 2009)
• Moms use social media and Twitter more than the average adult. Of respondents surveyed between April and June 2009, 60.3% of moms used Facebook compared to 50.2% of adults surveyed. And 16.5% of moms used Twitter compared to 15% of adults. (Source: Retail Advertising & Marketing Association, “All About Moms,” conducted by BIGresearch, September 16, 2009)

I could go on and on with the statistics, but it appears that Twitter is not going the way of MySpace, especially if it can make good on its monetization strategy. So as I was writing and researching this post today, I started following three more people and I set a weekly reminder for myself to check Twitter. It’s a start.

Do you have a Twitter account? Do you use it? If so, have you developed a Twitter strategy? Let us know.