What you should know about Twitter

January 26, 2010 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
By now, we're all aware that we can't "tweet" our way to more sales. Twitter is merely a tool that allows users to share information with a broad audience. Although Twitter has grown in immense popularity in 2009, it seems as though its user base is flat lining. The growth of its unique visitors has peaked in recent months. But some analysts say that this leveling of popularity shouldn't be viewed as a failure, because the people who use Twitter are using it more than ever.

A CNN article shows that the number of users has peaked at about 23.5 million in August 2009. By contrast around the same period, Facebook grew from about 250 million users to more than 350 million! So, let's get some perspective: another recent article pointed out that there are actually more active users in the Facebook app FarmVille than on all of Twitter.

HubSpot released its own "State of the Twittersphere" report last year. The report found that:

• 79.79% of users failed to provide a homepage URL
• 75.86% of users hadn't entered a bio in their profile
• 55.50% are not following anyone
• 54.88% have never tweeted
• 52.71% have no followers.

What this tells us is that there is a large number of people who sign up for accounts but are not very active users.

Does this mean that you should cancel your business's Twitter account? Not necessarily. Just as some people prefer getting their daily news from TV while others like the Internet, there are many people who would like to follow a company's updates via Twitter, rather than receive an e-mail every day.

Still, these statistics are a useful wake-up call. Twitter -- or any other online social media outlet for that matter -- will never be the silver bullet solution to your problem. Think of it as Legos. One piece won't get you anywhere. But a whole box of pieces with different colors and sizes allow you to build a sturdy structure. Marketing and communications will always be best used with an integrated approach. So this year, make sure you have an accurate inventory of every marketing piece you're using to reach your consumers.