study - TheWayoftheWeb

Twitter equal to Facebook in awareness, if not in users

In the U.S. Twitter is now as well known among the population as Facebook, with 87% of Americans aware of each social network.

What’s interesting is the difference in growth and in resulting user figures, as shown in the Edison Research/Arbitron Internet & Multimedia Study. In 2008 only 5% of the population was aware of Twitter, as opposed to 50% awareness of Facebook.

The rapid increase in awareness of the microblogging service seems tied to the fact that a high proportion of the active Twitter users are in information sharing industries – e.g. media, marketing etc, and the fact that microblogging itself is so effective as sharing information. As Leo LaPorte said, it’s the ‘nervous system’ of the internet. It’s mean that mainstream television and print media now give a constant presence to Twitter, and more Americans are aware of the service than actually have internet access (87% versus 85%). Maybe they’re all using SMS?

And yet despite this awareness, relatively few people actually use Twitter. The study shows 41% of Americans now have a Facebook profile, but only 7% are on Twitter.

This may simply be down to the lag time between awareness and signing up – after all, Facebook has had 50% awareness for the last 2 years, but only 41% signups.

The insight into Twitter demographics is also interesting. Twitter users are likely to be well educated (63% with a college degree), and in a higher income household. It’s also disproportionately popular with African-Americans (25%) and 79% would rather give up their TV than their internet connection.

Does the comparison matter?

While the comparison between the two social networks is interesting from a social and business point of view – I wonder whether it actually matters in the grand scheme of things. Twitter has over 100 million users, and if they’re skewed towards those with more money, that’s probably even more attractive to advertisers and marketers who want to reach that audience, and probably don’t want to bother with more targeting than they really have to…

Twitter is very much about information sharing on a business and industry level as much as a personal level, as opposed to Facebook, which skews towards the personal. Both overlap in terms of entertainment news and gossip, but Twitter has a slight edge due to the chance to post via SMS and mobile clients, the speed of the information flow, and the ability to query all the data for trending topics and breaking news – whereas because Facebook relies on a two-way agreement for friends, news has to break into your social network before you can discover it.

And despite both companies expanding to try and ‘become the internet’ (Twitter acquires Tweetie, Facebook’s Open Social Graph), there’s definitely room for both approaches to co-exist.

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Useful study on Social Network Marketing on Facebook and Myspace

I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and read Tom Chapman’s study of Social Network Marketing, Engagement Marketing and Brands, which specifically looks at marketing on Facebook and Myspace from the perspectives of both social network users, and brand executives from the likes of innocent drinks and BBC Radio 1.

It’s quite unusual to see a report from someone who isn’t linked to either the network in question, or an agency which may be looking to attract business (Tom is Head of Marketing for an ISP).

It’s effectively split into two parts. The first section is a look at the quantitative findings of surveying Myspace and Facebook users, whilst the second part compiles the in-depth interviews with brand executives.

I won’t quote too much of the study, but it covers topics like the percentage of Myspace and Facebook users who would feel more affinity to a brand that listened to them and communicated with them (65% and 67% respectively). And it goes into detail for both social advertising and brand promotions, as well as finding out how many Myspace and Facebook fans are aware their profile information is used to target them – (56% and 45%). It’s quite surprising, particularly after the uproar within certain circles over Facebook’s Beacon advert system, for example.

And it’s certainly interesting to hear the responses of some executives who use both networks to great effect – for instance, the Chris Moyles fan page with 536774 fans.

As someone who is fairly deeply involved in the subject (It’s my day job, after all), I saw lots that will be useful in supporting my own work and theories, and some correlation between what other brands have found, and what I’ve discovered from Bauer Media’s brands on Facebook and Myspace.

I’ve had the chance to exchange a couple of emails with Tom, and voiced my thoughts that the next stage will be to look at exactly how brand executives are measuring loyalty, engagement and participation, especially with respect to Return on Investment and justifying the time and effort involved. It really is the multi-million dollar question of social media, and it’s getting closer every day – and I think this study goes a long way to reaching that destination.

Anyway, if you’re interested in reading more, the study is at socialnetworkmarketinguk.com. And if that inspires you, there’s still time to save 10% off the price of attending Social Media in Business on October 23rd.

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