How Marketers Use Twitter

2013 Twitter Research [Charts]

Want to reach marketing decision makers on Twitter? Then check out Leadtail and NetBase’s analysis “How Digital Marketers Engage on Twitter” based on the Twitter activity of 515 North American brand, corporate, and agency digital marketers between between April 1st and June 30^th, 2013.

1. Platforms used for Twitter sharing

Active social media users find ways to maximize content distribution. As a result, roughly four out five marketers tweet using the Twitter website or tweet buttons. The break out of apps is: 29% use Hootsuite, 20% use TweetDeck and 11% use Buffer. Further, there’s wide array of cross sharing at lower rates.

2. Mobile Twitter sharing

Overwhelmingly, this segment are loyal Apple users since two-thirds used Twitter for iPhone and another 30% used Twitter for iPad as well as other iOS options. By contrast, only 14% used Twitter for Android. (Here’s more research on use of Twitter via mobile.)

3. Social media platform cross-sharing

It’s no surprise that active Twitter marketers cross-shared with Instagram and Vine, two platforms also focused on short form content.

4. Content shared on Twitter

80% of the content shared on Twitter by marketers is media; 45% is mainstream media and 35% is industry specific media.

5. Top 25 mainstream media sources on Twitter

It’s worth noting that the list includes traditional media outlets like Forbes, the New York Times and CNN as well as online-only entities like the Huffington Post, Gizmodo and Google.

Forbes
Huffington Post
New York Times
BuzzFeed
Fast Company
Wall Street Journal
HBR Blogs
Wired
Inc.
CNN
CNET News
Guardian UK
Washington Post
USA Today
The Atlantic
Gizmodo
NPR
Fast Co Create
Entrepreneur
Google
WSJ Blogs
Businessweek
CNN Money
Fast Co Design
Gawker

6. Top 25 marketing industry sources on Twitter

By contrast, only 2 of the industry sources have traditional media roots, Advertising Age and Ad Week.

Mashable
TechCrunch
Business Insider
Advertising Age
Ad Week
All Things D
VentureBeat
Social Media Today
The Next Web
Media Post
The Verge
Digiday
Read Write Web
Hubspot Blog
Search Engine Land
Marketing Land
BizJournals
GigaOM
Mediabistro
PR Daily
Social Media Examiner
Marketing Profs
AllFacebook
eMarketer
Search Engine Watch

7. Top 10 social media sources on Twitter

The cross promotion of YouTube videos topping the list is interesting since YouTube is the second largest social media site and the second largest search engine. Also of note is the presence of SlideShare, which has fast become a B2B content staple. Since photos are easy-to-snap, share and consume, it makes sense that they account for a large portion of the options.

YouTube
Instagram
Foursquare
Vine
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter (Photos)
SlideShare
TwitPic
Pinterest

8. Top 25 people marketers tweet

Like most social media participants, marketers mention others to give them credit for an idea or engage them in a conversation. Most of the people on this list are marketing thought leaders with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton being notable exceptions. Jay Baer tops the list since his new book Youtility came out during this period and make the New York Times Bestseller list. (Note: Jay wrote his first book, The Now Revolution, with number 25 on the list Amber Naslund (aka @ambercadabra). It makes sense that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo are on the list. (BTW: Here’s how to get more Twitter followers.)

@jaybaer
@tedrubin
@garyvee
@jeffbullas
@barackobama
@jowyang
@chrisbrogan
@briansolis
@kimgarst
@cc_chapman
@pammktgnut
@shellykramer
@guykawasaki
@dannysullivan
@darrenrovell
@dickc
@mitchjoel
@markwschafer
@aaronstrout
@hillaryclinton
@marissamayer
@davekerpen
@jack
@ekaterina
@ambercadabra

Using a mix of tools and devices marketers are highly engaged on Twitter. Due to Twitter’s short content allowance (140 characters), much of marketers’ conversation references other media sources, both mainstream and industry focused.

What other insights do you draw from this research?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

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Photo Credit: Twitter