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Why Do People Use Twitter? View Latest Survey Results Update

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Categories: Social Media, twitter

Twitter Power Poll Survey

Twitter Power Poll Survey

So the results for the “Twitter Power Poll Survey Number Two: What Do You Use Twitter For?  are both expected but maybe a little disturbing for the  Triple T’s..the ” Twitter Tragic Traditionals”, who think Twitter should be only about engaging and communicating.

With 152 votes currently counted here is the state of play with the results ranked from the most popular  to the least

  1. Communicate and engage  22%
  2. ReTweet links (Content) 18%
  3. Send Out Links To Sites where content is thought as valuable (Content) 16%
  4. Drive Traffic 13%
  5. Create Friendships 10%
  6. Generate More Followers 8%
  7. Develop Leads 5%
  8. Other 5%
  9. Service Customers 3%

So if you group these into three logical categories then you get an interesting scenario that emerges from a judgement and assessment of combining certain groupings percentages.

Category 1: Relational Motivation (Communicate and Engage # 1 and Create Friendships #5 ) Total 32%

Category 2: Promotional Motivation (Drive Traffic #4, Generate More Followers 8% and Develop Leads#7) Total 26%

Category 3: Information Motivation (ReTweet Links #2 and Send Out Links To Sites #3)  Total 34%

If you consider that distributing information ( Category 3), is very much an integral  part of  promotion (Category 2) and by combining Category Two and Three for a total of 60%, then it could be argued that Twitter is emerging from it’s adolesence as a highly efficient technology platform that people are increasingly utilizing to get their message out, “Drive Traffic“ , generate buzz, create leads and sales rather than be just a relational platform.

What do you think? Is this an assessment you agree with?


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  • Shannon

    We totally agree. Twitter is an amazing resource for digging through original content, discussing industry trends, solving problem & curating shared content!

    Well said.

  • Nic

    Twitter is great as long as people use it for engaging others and not for broadcasting! I guess many of us made that mistake when we first started out, I know I did!

    • Stephanie

      I totally agree. What is the point in following people who retweet without sharing what they think when I already follow the sources?

  • Philippa

    Yes I agree – great post, but it’s worth bearing in mind how quickly things change. Since 2008 running a business has been an interesting time; things have been changing so quickly – I can’t plan for as long as I did, economies have changed significantly and so have social networks. In three months time the picture could be completely different as in we may be using a totally different platform, or we may be using Twitter for different reasons.

  • http://twitter.com/akram_husain akram husain

    Eventhough the no. of respondents are less. I assume this is very much likely scenario. Good insight.

  • http://twitter.com/GregLins Greg Lins

    I agree with the assessment that Twitter is a highly efficient technology platform to “drive traffic”, but it’s an equally efficient platform to aggregate and curate news that others are interested in. 

    One of the things about Twitter that I’ve noticed is the enormous potential for brand development. By curating news content and feeding that to an ever-growing base of people interested in a niche area of news, a developing brand can associate with that news feed and add to it. In other words, smaller brands have the ability to reach larger audiences than their own content could possibly allow, simply by working to curate a news feed and “Own The Discussion”.

  • http://www.freshwebseo.com/ Ryan Burnsworth

    Video is very important for most types of businesses.
    It is a great way to display products, detail services, and build fans.
    It really depends on your industry how important social media video marketing is to your campaigns.

  • http://www.zincreatie.nl/ Bart

    I think the magic of Twitter is that it is so widespread and accessible that in fact it becomes a neutral tool, to be used in any kind of way. As there are hardly any boundries for the user to put out a message or to pick up information, it reflects the outline of who ever is using it. Also, everyone has the same rights: 140 characters, regardless if you’re housewife or a communications expert. That’s makes it the most democratic way of communicating. The results of this are well known. But you can also drive business targets with Twitter, same as finding soulmates or just make your voice heard. The outcome of the survey sounds logic to me, as it is first of all a social medium. For businessmen it’s will generously serve business purposes, for teenagers it will serve their quest for identity, for politicians it’s a PR-too, and so on. For me, there is a lot more to the cheerful bleu icon. It is a wide open window to the world.

  • http://twitter.com/masterplanbrand Suzanne D Pollock

    Thanks for this post, Jeff. I would add ‘to learn’ . As well as a place to share knowledge through links and insights Twitter is a great place to connect and learn.

    As a case in point, I have learned a great deal from your posts, which I only found recently via Twitter. Thanks & Regards, Susie

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin-Reti/100002705416418 Martin Reti

    tnx for the post – I´d agree on your assessment. Seems to me that 152 is an appropriate number of “pollisti” ;-) Twitter for me is about fast sharing and finding relevant information enriched with building and living of personal relationships

    Martin

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