Study Finds Twitter Users Three Times More Likely to Impact Brands Online

Survey of 1,500 Consumers Finds Twitter's Reach Nearly Double Its Active User Base

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new study released today by ExactTarget finds consumers active on Twitter are three times more likely to impact a brand’s online reputation through syndicated Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer.

“Consumers active on Twitter are clearly the most influential online”

Featured in Twitter X-Factors report, a new report by ExactTarget and CoTweet, the survey of more than 1,500 consumers identifies top motivations for following brands on Twitter and provides new insight into consumers’ expectations for interacting with brands online.

“Consumers active on Twitter are clearly the most influential online,” said Morgan Stewart, principal, ExactTarget’s research and education group. “What happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter. While the number of active Twitter users is less than Facebook or email, the concentration of highly engaged and influential content creators is unrivaled—it’s become the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every other corner of the internet.”

Key findings of the research include:

• Twitter users are the most influential online consumers – 72 percent publish blog posts at least monthly, 70 percent comment on blogs, 61 percent write at least one product review monthly and 61 percent comment on news sites.
• Daily Twitter users are 6 times more likely to publish articles, five times more likely to post blogs, seven times more likely to post to Wikis and three times more likely to post product reviews at least monthly compared to non-Twitter users.
• 23 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates at least monthly.
• 11 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates, but do not have a Twitter account themselves.
• 20 percent of consumers indicate they have followed a brand in order to interact with the company – more than become email subscribers or Facebook fans for the sake of interaction.
• Men are more than twice as likely as women to follow brands on Twitter to interact with the company (29 percent compared to 13 percent).
• Nine out of the 10 most common motivations for consumers to follow a brand on Twitter involve consumers seeking information from a company.

“Twitter offers marketers an unrivaled opportunity to instantly and personally interact with customers on behalf of a brand,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “The Twitter X-Factors report provides marketers an exclusive look at why consumers interact with brands on Twitter and offers new insight into how to make the most of each of those interactions.”

Twitter X-Factors is the fourth research brief in ExactTarget’s and CoTweet’s six-part Subscribers, Fans & Followers research series set for release through September. The series provides marketers exclusive insight into how U.S. consumers’ interact with brands online based on a series of focus groups, interviews and surveys conducted in March and April. For more information about the study, to access an interactive application of the Subscribers, Fans & Followers data or to subscribe to receive future research briefs delivered via email, visit www.ExactTarget.com/sff.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s software as a service technology provides organizations a single platform to connect with customers via triggered and transactional email, integrated text messaging, voice messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based multi-channel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.