48 minutes per month on Twitter

By Scott Appel on June 5th, 2009 In Social Media

nielsenchartAn interesting Nielsen article out earlier this week reports that total minutes spent on social networking and blog sites has increased 83 percent year over year.  The report went on to detail that in April 2009, time spent on Facebook increased nearly 700 percent compared to April of last year.  Specifically, minutes spent on Facebook were reported to be more than 13.8 billion.

Over the same time frame, Twitter saw an increase of more than 3,700 percent in April with a near 299 million minutes of tweeting reported.  Not to get all mathy on everyone, I was curious to see how these Twitter minutes averaged per user.  This was not an easy task to determine, but here are the research results.

In January of ‘09, Twitter was estimated to have 3.4 million users by Jeremiah Owyang.  Because Twitter does not like to reveal its active users, Owyang estimated this using HP Labs’ Twitter research showing 68 percent of Twitter users remain active.  comScore reports that Twitter had more than 9.3 million visits in March ‘09 alone.  Utilizing the same HP Lab’s figure suggests that 6.3 million users returned as active users in April.  These numbers work out to users spending nearly 48 minutes on Twitter. It’s important to note that the 9.3 million number does not include the many users accessing Twitter via clients such as Tweetie, TwitterFon or Twhirl.

How do these numbers sound to you? I think 48 minutes feels low.  My guess is that it is falsely low due to the definition of “active” and the ambiguous cloud of Twitter users out there.  Other Twitter grader and ranker sites compare your account to a range of 2.3 million to 3.3 million users.  Is this ambiguity good for Twitter though?  Granted the hype has helped push the influx of try-it-before-you-buy-it users, but like other social networking sites unless you really dive in and become part of the community, it’s sometimes hard to recognize the value of that community.

There is no doubt that the current Twitter frenzy (or is it twenzy?) is fueled by the recent celebrity attention. Will Twitter be able to keep up with the hype and quickly demonstrate its value to the user?  What are your thoughts?

48 minutes per month on Twitter

Comments

Wendy Kenney @23Kazoos Says:
June 6th, 2009 at 5:44 am

Twitter is one of the few platforms I truly enjoy. I’ve been able to connect with people that I probably never would have met and glean vast amounts of valuable knowledge that I never would have found. If Twitter continues to add value, it will be around for a long time.

Michele Nissen Says:
June 6th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

Twitter has given me a valuable means to connect with people and organizations that wasn’t possible before. I look forward to Twitter evolving and adding value through the years. Twitter is here to stay!

Abbie S. Fink Says:
June 7th, 2009 at 5:40 am

Interesting article. Social media is proving to be a very effective tool, not only to push out information, but to glean insight into the industry as well. I have established relationships through twitter (@AbbieF), Facebook, etc. in a way I have never been able to do before.

Andy Says:
June 7th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

When Oprah joined Twitter it seemed like the whole world did too. Since then, there’s been more “what’s all the hype about” then anything else from the general public it seems. I think Twitter is a tool that is only useful to those who take time to make a personal investment in the Twitterverse community and use it purposefully. With the right tweeters, the possibilities are endless.

JennaP Says:
June 12th, 2009 at 6:50 am

These are great questions. I have been thinking about Twitter a lot recently. I am constantly surprised by the new ways that it is being used. An article by the associated press in May reported that astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Fuestel tweeted from 350 miles above earth, while repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.

I will admit that I was a little sceptical about the value of having an account, when I first signed up. After all, I am certainly not Oprah and I have never been to space, so would anyone follow me?

I found that Twitter provides a networking opportunity that is different from other social networking communities. There is a constant flow of new information available to you from very remote places and fascinating people. More importantly, it gave me the opportunity to watch how other people were using the community and the information they gathered.

Christina Applegate, the star of ABC’s Samantha Who?, used Twitter in May to launch a petition to save her show after it was cancelled for financial reasons. This is an example of the kind of celebrity attention that adds to the hype and frenzy that Scott mentioned.

Twitter lives up to this kind of hype by demonstrating that having an account provides each user with unlimited opportunities to use these resources. It can appeal to a variety of different types of people, in a variety of industries. The value is that it has something for everyone.

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