Pear Analytics recently did a study on how people are using and consuming Twitter. The study took 2,000 random tweets from the public timeline in English and in the U.S. over a period of 2 weeks, from 11:00a to 5:00p (CST) and was posted by Ryan Kelly. While I applaud the effort and think they are on the right track on providing a super-value added study to the public and marketers, I wouldn’t call this a conclusive study. Ryan mentioned that they will update it regularly so that’s a good thing.

Here are the results of the study with the categories defined by Pear Analytics:

• Pointless babble 40.55%
• Conversational 37.55%
• Pass along value 8.70%
• Self promotion 5.85%
• Spam 3.75%
• News 3.60%

You can read about the details of the study yourself (link at end of this post.) Some of the most surprising results are the following:

• Self promotion and spam are not as prominent as many have complained about.
• News represents a very small amount of activities, despite recent media buzz.

So it looks like issues that affect many people (like the Iran election and spams) that receive huge news coverage also tend to pump up public impressions about Twitter and exaggerate their real impacts. The real numbers seem to show that these are not much of a problem; you just think they’re big problems because they’re constantly in your face or they annoy you a lot. With more refinement (such as extended time of day included in the study) we may see an increase in these numbers.

I look at this study as work in progress with better updates to be expected. Here are a few issues I see that should be resolved to improve the study value in the future:

• Pointless babble is not necessarily a negative thing as its name may suggest. This category needs more refinements as this big group represents many important pieces of information, both to consumers and marketers. For the consumers and individuals, it is exactly the social aspect of social networking, and people will continue to socialize the way they want to. All you can do accept it and understand it, not control or eliminate it. And this social spaces and activities are exactly where marketers need to be to understand consumer behaviors.
• The time periods of 11:00 am to 5:00 pm CST is too limited to really understand Twitter users in the U.S. It’s only 6 hours of each of the time zones. At a minimum I think the study should begin at 6:00 am to midnight for each time zone. As it is, it merely tracks only the lunch to early evening hours of east coast time (noon to 6:00 pm, entirely missing 12 hours of east coast tweets,) and includes only the mid morning to mid-afternoon hours of west coast time (9:00 am to 3:00 pm, again entirely missing 12 hours of west coast tweets in the morning, late afternoon and evenings.)

See the original Pear Analytics post on “Twitter Study Reveals Interesting Results About Usage.”

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Pointless Babble Is King: Twitter Study Almost Hits the Mark

Related posts

• Must-Have Formula For Business Social Media Advertising
• Corporate Blogging – Minimum Must-Have Elements For Successful Strategy
• Ford Gets Bloggers Involved in “What Women Want” for Instant Buzz
• Creating a Social Media Strategy? Don’t Forget the Legal Team
• Marketing Basics and Building Buzz – What About Integrity?
• How to Build a New Media Corporate Marketing Team
• How to Benefit from Twitter Trending Topics and Keep Your Marketing Integrity and Ethics Too
• Twitter’s Achilles’ Heels May Be Its Biggest Challenge
• Marketing and Customer Service Are Really One and the Same to Customers
• Scaling Back or Stepping Up Marketing in a Recession? Maybe It’s the Wrong Question

So you have 3 choices: reduce, maintain or increase your marketing in this recession. Obviously the answer lies in the budget that is available for your operation. But more importantly, and independently of the budget, your marketing program needs to be a lot smarter than what it used to be. This means doing more with less, working smarter and harder (not smarter than harder,) focussing on your strengths and putting aside nice-to-have stuff.

Considering that people still need to purchase products and services in order to live their lives, regardless of market condition, here are some typical market-in-decline realities that may help shape your new marketing strategies:

• Consumers are still buying, though they may be searching harder and longer for cheaper alternatives or products.
• Used product sales are on the rise, including pre-owned cars. It’s all about getting the best deal for a given amount of money paid, and cars with 1-3 years of age are the best bargains.
• Sales at goodwill industries are booming. These have their own industries because the markets are big. There are quality items to be found, and smart consumers know this and want to take advantage of it.
• Comfort foods are selling. While consumers do cut back on eating out at high-end establishments, they still look for cheaper ways to enjoy a meal once in a while. Home-cooked style and no-frills eateries with great value and fulfilling foods are the best.
• Do-it-yourself is now the superstar. Homeowners come to the realization that the roofs over their heads are still the best thing they own, so it make total sense to spend what little they have to spend on this large investment. And do-it-yourself (DYI) is where you get the best bang for the buck.
• DIY fitness is more popular. Recreation is another area where people as a creature cannot do without. And fitness is one of the most fun and best value people can do with the least amount of money spent. Expect products like running shoes, bicycle helmets, etc. to take a leap in sales.

Of course these are not meant to be a complete list. Rather they are illustrative of the type of market conditions and consumer behaviors you need to understand right now to help redirect your marketing strategies. The real question is not about whether or not you should scale back or step up your marketing effort. The real question is how do you implement effective marketing campaigns that put your best strengths forward to address the current new market demands.

Here are 3 practical things you can do right now:

1. Analyze your offerings and focus on your key products and core customers. Place heavy emphasis on your key products that are relevant to core customers. Nothing else matters.
2. Acquire insights from experienced colleagues and take advantage of the experience of those who have survived through previous recessions. This alone is one of the most overlooked affordable secret weapons that you can find.
3. Just as important, know where to make cuts (if you must) and where not to make cuts. Smaller budgets are a reality. It’s how you prioritize your marketing activities that will determine how you will recover when the market picks up again.

With a sharply focussed marketing strategy, it doesn’t matter if you scale back or step up your efforts. What matters is you understand your new market forces and meet its demands with the lowest cost and most effective tools you can find.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Scaling Back or Stepping Up Marketing in a Recession? Maybe It’s the Wrong Question

Related posts

• Pointless Babble Is King: Twitter Study Almost Hits the Mark
• Buy One, Get One Free Electronic Coupons: Mobile Marketing at Work
• Beware the Marketing Creeps
• For Marketers: This Is Not The Time To Retreat!
• Don’t Get Into Social Media: The “Pepsi 25″ Social Media Rebranding Campaign.
• About Marketing Autopsy