Mindshare Ispy Twitter Research

31 Defining Brands’ Role in the Twitterverse

iSpy Wave 5

Twitter has seen spectacular growth in 2009 & captured the digital zeitgeist

Source: ComScore, June 2009

9.13% Internet users

A wide range of brands are starting to use Twitter0

But most are still working out how to use it0

Our research objectives

1. Who’s using Twitter and how?

2. What are brands doing with Twitter and what do users think of their presence?

3. What are the rules of engagement for brands in the Twitterverse?

36 Methodology - Qualitative

40 respondents from across UK

• Face to Face & online focus groups

• Online paired interviews with webcams

Split evenly by:

• Age group (18-24, 25-34, 35+)

• Prior experience of Twitter (Long term & new users)

• Prior following of brands (½ already following)

Pre-task to follow brands

Fieldwork Apr-May 2009

2nd Level

Follower

3rd Level

Follower

3rd Level

Follower

2nd Level

Follower

2nd Level

Follower

Origin

Twitter

Follower

Methodology - Quantitative

2. Brand Message Tracking

• Analysis of networked message dissemination

• Brands tracked included:

• O2, BA, Thomas Cook, Innocent, Howie’s, Dell, Andrex & Comparethemarket.com

• 95,000 users & 4m tweets

1. User behaviour sample

• Analysis of tweets to identify usage behaviour

• A random sample of 3,000 drawn from UK based users

Who’s using Twitter and how?

39 Twitter particularly strong in London and amongst older

internet users

Source: ComScore, June 2009

Twitter Facebook Bebo MySpace

18% 23%35% 31%

24%23%

16% 18%

39%40% 35% 38%

19% 14% 14% 12%

15-24 25-34 35-54 55+

52% 51% 47% 54%

48% 49% 53% 46%

Males Females

34% 29%16%

66% 71%84%

London Rest of UK

0 Twitter network is much more open than other social networks

0-1010%

11-5032%

51-10018%

101-25020%

251-5009%

501-10005%

1000+5%

Number of Followers

• Less following of friends and family

• More of interesting strangers / celebrities / information sources

• So, less personal yet more open content is tweeted

‘Twitter doesn’t have all your random school friends so you can say a lot more without

thinking about how people are judging you’’ (NU 18-24)

‘Very different for me...facebook is about mates and twitter is about thoughts and opinions and

your interests’’ (NU 35+)

Source: Mindshare Twitter Network Analysis

Top 30% of users account for 2/3 of tweets

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%0%

% Users

• Login and post frequently

Active Tweeters

• Post infrequently• Read more than they

tweet• Use it as information

resource

Passive Tweeters

ActiveTweeters

‘I like the idea of random blurbs and thoughts put out there to millions’ (LG

18-24)

‘i like the fact that it seems quite simple, its not too challenging. but

also a great way of getting instant updates, a bit like RSS’ (LG 25-34)

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

Tweets: @ Tweets: Re-Tweets:

Even split between ‘broadcast’ and ‘conversational’ tweets

Volume of tweets within network Jan-Jun 2009

3 Tweet frequency drops off after honeymoon period for active users

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100

Top 10% Average Bottom 10%

Days Active

Average tweets per day by time since joining

4 Usage patterns mirror social networking, peaking in the evenings

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 230

Twitter Internet Social Networks

Delivery

Note: Rebased by peak audience deliverySource: Touchpoints / Mindshare Twitter network analysis

5 Traditional use through a browser makes up less than half of total Tweets

Web Browser43%

twitterfeed4%

TwitterFox2%

TweetDeck17%

Twitterrific3%

Other11%

Tweetie6%

TwitterFon4%

twhirl4%

mobile web3%

TwitterBerry2%

BrowserApplications 49%

Both Mobile & Desktop Applications 31%

MobileApplications 20%

6Simplicity of Twitter’s protocol opens door to myriad of uses…

7 A diverse range of uses which continue to evolve

Self Expression

• Stream of

consciousness

observations

• ‘Ambient

intimacy’ –

connections

with friends

Reasons to use TwitterActive Passive

Networking

• Connecting

with like-

minded users

or people that

work in the

same business

Information Sourcing

• Independent

and real time

information

gathering

(akin to RSS)

• Potential to

use as a

search tool

Entertainment

• Sourcing

snippets of

entertainment

, celebrity,

news, comedy

8 Using Twitter for ‘social search’ is likely to grow

Relatively unused application currently

But respondents are starting to use Twitter for:

• Opinion gauging

• Real time news

• Unadulterated views from ‘real people’

• Crowd sourcing

9 Twitter fulfills needs that sit between social networks and search

Communicating with friends

Networking

Entertainment

‘Static’ search

Self-expressionAmbient intimacy

Information sourcing‘social’ search

So what if…

Google buys Twitter?

Search on Twitter will get better but the rest of Twitter may largely remain the same

Google however incorporate real time search results around which they can sell targeted advertising

Brand usage of Twitter

2 To date, brands have broadly taken 4 approaches

Values in Action

• PR tool to

interact with

consumers

• Acting as a

spokesperson to

demonstrate

brand values

• Gauging

consumer

opinion

Brand Engagement

• Providing

snippets of

entertainment

• Small moments

of distraction to

engage with

consumers

Sales Promotions

• Promoting new

products,

services or

offers

• Distributing

vouchers

• Competitions

Customer Support

• Acting as a ‘help

desk’ providing

support to

consumers

e.g. Innocent e.g. Compare

the Market

e.g. British

Airwayse.g. O2

All utterly dependent on consumer ‘pull’

3 Values in Action - Innocent

Quirky tone expressing brand personality

4 Brand Engagement - Compare the Market

Using Twitter to extend life of campaign to those who liked it, without annoying those who didn’t

5 Sales Promotion – British Airways

Expectation of exclusive offers & unlikely to follow continuously

6 Customer Support - O2

Opportunity to have contact with brand and get direct response is welcomed

7 Twitter has a huge potential to facilitate Word of Mouth

RT practice grew from Twitter user culture• 1of 3 core actions on receiving tweet

All content (ie tweets) can be directly passed on• Not the case in social networking sites

8 Concept of network analysis

Brand Message: Sale on xxxx at

http://www.brand.com

RT @brand Sale on xxxx at

Sale on xxxx at http://www.brand.com

Great News from @brand! Sale on xxxx at http://www.brand.com

Sale on xxxx at http://www.brand.com

Finally! @brand Sale on xxxx at

9 Brands vary between high and low activity and follower bases, affecting their possible WOM

Andrex Howie's Cardigan

Thomas Cook UK

O2 DellOutletUK British Airways

Innocent Drinks

Aleksandr Orlov

800 1,301 803

1,531 2,332

12,504 11,222

Andrex Howie's Cardigan

Thomas Cook UK

O2 DellOutletUK British Airways

Innocent Drinks

Aleksandr Orlov

208 242

10161298

Brand FollowersBrands such as Innocent possess a large base of directly reachable followers

Brand TweetsBrands such as O2 create a large volume of messages, attempting to create a wealth of communication

0 The chances of a Re-Tweet occurring, when considered as a whole are relatively small

DellOutletUK British Airways

Thomas Cook UK

Aleksandr Orlov

Innocent Drinks

O2 Andrex Howie's Cardigan

0.04%0.03%

0.01% 0.01% 0.002%

Probability of a Brand Follower Re-Tweeting any one Message

Promotional Tweets seem to fare best

On Average, Re-Tweets account for 6% of Total Message Reach

Proportion of Total Message Reach by Levels

Level 0Direct Followers

Level 1Followers’ Followers

Level 2

All Brand Average Dell UK

Of all the brands, Howie’s gained the furthest distribution, out to level 7

2 Research key findings

1. Twitter’s protocol leads to a wide & constantly evolving range of consumer uses

• Self-expression, networking, entertainment, info sourcing

2. Most users are ‘passive’, tweet infrequently & use as information stream

3. Social search is beginning to gain traction amongst mainstream Twitter users & will grow in importance

4. Consumers are open to brands on Twitter but (because) they have total control over access

5. Word of Mouth has as much, if not greater, potential on Twitter than social networks

Brand rules of engagement

View Twitter as a potentially vital component in a wider

social media strategy

Your brand is already on Twitter

People are talking about brands on Twitter, so at the very least listen to what they are saying

Some people are searching on Twitter – you need to have an official presence, as other people may also be claiming to be you

People use Twitter in lots of different ways and this should direct how you choose to engage them

So if you do decide to get involved on Twitter here are……

…½ a dozen rules of engagement0

…½ a dozen rules of engagement

1. Give people a reason to follow – be entertaining and/or useful

2. Complement your wider marketing activity

3. How you react to people is public and permanent - so be human and genuine!

4. Have an ongoing dialogue OR have a clear exit strategy

5. Judge your frequency of engagement carefully

6. Measurement of success – bear in mind layers of influencers

Next Steps

Talk to Jeremy and Alastair about how we can develop bespoke solutions to monitor and manage brand sentiment on Twitter and other digital social spaces

Jeremy.Pounder@mindshareworld.comAlastair.Cotterill@mindshareworld.com

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