The kids over at Information is Beautiful have put together a great infographic that looks at Twitter in several different ways and really, it’s a great shock to the system to help us all realize that Twitter isn’t as important as a lot of social media consultants and digital shops might want you to think it is. Take a look:
Seriously. Over 70% of users (which, let me remind you, is still a very small sliver of the population) aren’t active users. And, on average, only 8% of content on Twitter is considered “good.” (And yes, I know that’s subjective.)
My point? That Twitter is a drop in the bucket of word-of-mouth. That you don’t need a Twitter strategy first. You need a STRATEGY first. And maybe Twitter is an extension of that strategy. But never, ever, the center. It seems that the social media consultants have all started saying that Twitter and Facebook and Foursquare and (insert whatever platform comes out next week) are all “tools in your toolbox.” Yet most of them have no toolbox to speak of. They still all talk about the platforms – incessantly.
So start at the beginning. Look for where it hurts instead of just taking fist-fulls of medicine and hoping for the best. It’ll save you a lot of time, energy and pain.
Chad Hartman
Good piece and stats. I think Twitter is so easy for people (to push whatever they want) that they have to come to grips with this reality. I RT’ed in efforts to fill the 8%.
September 24, 2010 at 5:14 pm
John Creighton
When I’m a blog and I see the reactions from twitter their is usually no content usually just a little itty bitty URL and nothing said. If these people simply use it as a bookmarking service then whey not use a bookmarking services. As far as feeds go I spend most of my time looking at my network feed on delicious and followed by facebook (where their is no length restriction).
Delicious being a bookmarking site provides a better description of the links, provides useful tags to categorize the information, lets me find other people who are interested in similar things and I can search all the bookmarks of the people on my network. What it is missing is to be able to search for information on other peoples networks. That is friends of friends might provide a useful search space.
I know twitter has many tools to overcome it’s limitations but without these tools I think it is pretty limited.
September 24, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Cynthia Nagle
FANTASTIC! I welcome more pieces like this to sort through the Twitter noise and help people make some sense of it as PART of a smart strategy. And I also RT’d to augment that paltry 8%!
September 24, 2010 at 5:45 pm
stevehulbert (Steve Hulbert)
Twitter Comment
RT @slantsixneal: This is very, very good. RT @spikejones Why you care about Twitter too much: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 4:16 pm
tbains (Tracy Bains)
Twitter Comment
LOL–I’m experiencing tweet burnout so this reinforces it’s time 4 RL! RT @afetterly: @tbains #twitter schmitter? [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:03 pm
coryripley (Cory Ripley)
Twitter Comment
RT @blairenns I wish I could force you to read this. RT @spikejones Why you care about Twitter too much: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:04 pm
thesisrockstar (Thesis Rockstar)
Twitter Comment
Reading : Why you care about Twitter too much [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:05 pm
thatwoman_is (Cd)
Twitter Comment
Really nice post “Ask Spike.” Why you care about Twitter too much. [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:06 pm
afetterly (Amanda Fetterly)
Twitter Comment
@tbains twitter schmitter? [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Snufflemuffin (Ryan Weisgerber)
Twitter Comment
RT @spikejones Why you care about Twitter too much: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:08 pm
thinkingwayne (Wayne Robinson)
Twitter Comment
Wow.. great perspective RT @spikejones Why you care about Twitter too much: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:09 pm
SBNewsTips (SBNewsTips)
Twitter Comment
RT @biztrek: Why you care about Twitter TOO MUCH ~ [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Rachna2010 (Rachna Sundaram)
Twitter Comment
@spikejones [link to post] I just wrapped up a piece for @revenews which reminds that SM is just ONE part of your overall strat.
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 27, 2010 at 5:11 pm
tomhenrich (Tom Henrich)
Twitter Comment
Amen. “You don’t need a Twitter strategy 1st. You need a STRATEGY first. And maybe Twitter is an extension of that.” [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 28, 2010 at 5:59 am
blairenns (Blair Enns)
Twitter Comment
I wish I could force you to read this. RT @spikejones Why you care about Twitter too much: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 28, 2010 at 9:29 am
BizTrek (BizTrek CEO)
Twitter Comment
Why you care about Twitter TOO MUCH ~ [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 28, 2010 at 4:34 pm
hughweber (Hugh Weber)
Twitter Comment
RT @spikejones: Why you care about Twitter too much: [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 28, 2010 at 9:03 pm
mccasal (mccasal)
Twitter Comment
Twitter by infographic that shows some interesting facts. Do we care too much about Twitter? [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
September 30, 2010 at 12:16 am
NormalsKekss (Mārtiņš Bērents)
Twitter Comment
tviteris 100 cilvēku griezumā [link to post] tipa, lai pārāk nesafanojas
– Posted using Chat Catcher
October 6, 2010 at 1:52 pm
AHARRIDEN (ADAM HARRIDEN)
Twitter Comment
Twitter Sats- If the Twitter community were 100
[link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
October 6, 2010 at 3:07 pm
davidburn (David Burn)
Twitter Comment
“on average, only 8% of content on Twitter is considered ‘good.’” -@SpikeJones [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
October 6, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Mockwriter (J Mockridge)
Twitter Comment
RT @davidburn: “on average, only 8% of content on Twitter is considered ‘good.’” -@SpikeJones [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
October 6, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Friday Links « 800 CEO Read
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