Twitter Stats and Trivia

I always enjoy the posts from @hubspot - and so this evening was reading their latest post '10 Essential Twitter Tips' - it reminded me that I too have collected some interesting Twitter trivia - and so I thought I'd share that too...

• Between 2pm and 5pm is when most tweets are retweeted.  Here at Carvill Creative we've actually been doing some research into retweets and repeat tweets - and so far we pretty much agree that the afternoon slot is far better in terms of tweets getting shared.  Also - re repeat tweets - we've found that the optimum number of times to repeat a tweet (albeit you may need to change the wording a little if using Hootsuite) - is 3. It doesn't turn people off and it gets good reach.

• There is no dip on click through rates on Twitter at the weekend – in fact they are higher at the weekend than on Mondays...so tweet at the weekend as usual.  Now of course, you may do most of your Tweeting from work (particularly if it's for business purposes) - and even though a large number of us may use our smartphones to Tweet - we may be 'switching off at the weekend'.  This is when Hootsuite comes in handy so that you can schedule purposeful and relevant tweets to run over the weekend.  (Is that twcheating?).

• The average tweet has a life span of 22 seconds – then it’s gone from the spotlight.  If this is true, this stat has changed dramatically in a year.  A year ago it was 12 minutes (or so I recall reading).  This is an interesting stat - and in some ways rather worrying. If the life span is so short - does that detract from the power of the message? I suppose this is where being targeting and having engaged and relevant followers (quality over quantity) comes into play.   If the life span keeps decreasing however, what will that mean for the platform?  Perhaps it's not all doom and gloom  - I am querying the stat with the informers to see what they mean from 'gone from the spotlight' and whether this relates to retweet and how far reaching the tweet goes?

• Don’t be afraid of tweeting too much – average amount can be anything up to 21 times a day.  Of course, again, this comes down to how you tweet. If I see a whole stream of tweets one after the other, continuously, then it blocks up by feed (particularly when viewing on a smartphone) and that may turn me off the tweeter.  So break up your tweets - rather than bulk tweet.  Again, Hootsuite and other resources enable you to schedule the stuff you want to share.  Also check out bufferapp.com - I'm loving it.

• There are 155 million tweets posted per day – triple the number a year ago.  It's growing that's for sure.

• Twitter is rated the best social media platform for building traffic to your website.

Got any more Twitter trivia or stats to share?  Look forward to hearing from you.

Happy Tweeting...

@Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative - a graphic design and digital marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing - covering social media marketing and social media training, user focused website planning and conversion focused website design.

For marketing and social media advice – view the Carvill Creative Blog