If a tweet falls in a forest…

Mary Schmidt

Dec 20, 2010

NYT: 8 Percent of American Internet Users Go to Twitter, Report Says

Now, here’s how survey results gets skewed and abused,  First, the article says:

A new study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center found that 8 percent of Americans who are active on the Internet are enthusiastic users of the social networking service Twitter.

Then,

The results of the study found that the 8 percent of Americans who regularly use Twitter are primarily  “young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities.”

Taken out of context, the second sentence makes Twitter look a lot more popular than it actually is, which could really mess with someone’s brand spankin’ new, new wave marketing plan.

If  I were selling to young adults, minorities or city folks, I’d certainly consider Twitter as a marketing tool.  However, I’d also look at my customer base, the type of product I’m selling, the locations in which I’m selling, and how I want to provide customer support.

Further, good tweets take time and effort (as with any other type of communications, the shorter, the harder). That’s why many people - including Sarah Palin (and John McCain ?!)  - pay someone to tweet and Facebook for them.  (If only Ashton and Demi would do the same, maybe we’d have less photos of her butt on the Web.  But I digress…:)  Such outsourcing negates the whole high-touch, personal aspect of social media.  If customers know your approachable, honest CEO is actually a paid ghost writer, it kills your credibility.

So, the survey info is certainly good to have…but…

Now, I’m going to go ponder - once again - how Demi is aging backward while I continue to age forward. (At one time, she was older than me…)

In Start-Up Sanity Checks, Social Media Reality Checks, Web Bytes