Twitter is well on its way to becoming a fully-fledged content marketing environment and now needs to find a way of monetising the hundreds of millions of people who lurk on the micro-blogging site.
Although recent research shows that only around 40% of people with a Twitter account have actually used it to tweet in the past year - a figure that is higher for South African users - this is not an indicator that the eight-year-old site's popularity is waning.
On the contrary, say analysts, Twitter is more vibrant than ever and a bigger play than people realise. This view seems to also be borne out by the decision by Twitter co-founders, Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, and CEO Richard Costolo to hang onto their stock after the lock-up period expires post its November 2013 listing.
On the side lines
TwopCharts notes there are currently 984.6 million Twitter accounts, of which only 549.5 million (or 55.81%) have ever tweeted. Of those who have ever posted, only 40% have done so in the past year, while only 31.75% of all people who have a Twitter handle have tweeted in the past 12 months.
Statistic Brain put the number of active users at 645.75 million, of which 115 million use the site every month, although it notes the micro-blogging site is attracting 135 000 new users every day. Locally, around 50% of Twitter users post every month, says Fuseware MD Mike Wronski.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says despite the apparent drop-off in users, Twitter is far bigger than many commentators realise. "It is close to the billion mark, and now needs to find more productive ways of monetising its user base."
For the year to December, Twitter pulled in revenue of $665 million, a 110% year-on-year gain, but continued to be loss-making, with its full-year net loss reported at $645 million. Costolo noted at the time: "I'm excited by the number of initiatives we have under way to further build upon the Twitter experience."
Consuming information
Twitter is on its way to becoming a more fully-fledged content marketing environment, which would be a more logical route than trying to compete with Facebook, says Goldstuck. He adds there is a misconception that active Twitter use is synonymous with posting tweets on Twitter.
"The reality is that almost half of Twitter users are there to consume, follow and be kept up to date. The Oscar Pistorius trial is a perfect example: more than half-a-million new users are likely to have come on board in SA by the time the trial ends, specifically to keep up with the up-to-the-minute Twitter coverage of the trial. They are not there to tweet."
However, Wronski notes there are vast amounts of fake accounts on Twitter, and many people also experiment with multiple accounts before discarding some of them. "Many people also just lose interest in participating, even though they still regularly log on just to consume content."
Wronski adds Twitter is more vibrant now than it ever has been, and is used by many South African brands as a communications channel. However, he notes social networks like Twitter also need to keep up with modern design trends and evolving patterns of behaviour.
"Recent redesigns have put content consumption front and centre - it's become easier than ever to consume multimedia on Twitter and share it with your audience."
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