For many marketers, Twitter is identifiable as one of the most important social media platforms on which brands can build connections with consumers. With the number of brand followers growing 43 percent in 2013, the platform has proved itself as a viable channel for brands to build awareness, drive engagement, and manage feedback and reputation amongst consumers.
It pays to know about how consumers are behaving on Twitter. Now with 271 million active monthly users, making 500 million tweets per day, and 72 percent of users saying they were more likely to make future purchases from brands they follow or engage with on Twitter, brands should be looking to leverage available data to supercharge their social media marketing.
A new report from ExactTarget has analyzed data from 3.6 million Twitter messages published via the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud platform in 2013. They report includes a number of invaluable charts that “depict Twitter engagement rates by day of week, month, time of day, and industry, combining both paid and organic tweets”.
Top 12 Twitter Takeaways
1) Twitter engagement grows steadily month-on-month, peaking in October and November as shoppers prepare to do their holiday shopping.
2) Twitter engagement is considerably higher during weekdays, although users are less active on Mondays as they recover from the post-weekend blues.
3) Twitter engagement is highest between 3 to 6 pm (CST), when most of the U.S. (and some of Europe) is active.
4) Media and Entertainment channels experience the highest level of engagement, with the busiest months between March and August (with a spike in October).
5) Financial Services see a spike in Tweeting activity in December, although this isn’t shared in the number of replies or retweets.
6) Retail and E‑Commerce sees a huge spike in Tweeting activity in December, and these messages are replied and retweeted to much more too.
7) Consumers are most likely to reply and retweet Retail and Ecommerce messages on a Thursday, between 3–6pm (CST).
8) The most popular month for tweeting about Technology and Manufacturing is October — around three times more tweets are sent than in the January/February months.
9) Tweets about Travel and Hospitality start to pick up in May, and remain high for the rest of the year, with particularly high activity in July and December.
10) The greatest number of tweets and retweets about Travel and Hospitality take place between 12–4am (CST).
11) The optimum days to tweet about Technology and Manufacturing are on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the optimum times are between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. (CST).
12) Photos in tweets massively increase engagement rates!
Looking Closely At The Data
An overriding takeaway that marketers can get from this data is that consumer behavior on Twitter varies across industries, and strategies should vary accordingly. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all tactic brands can adopt on Twitter, and particular verticals such as Media and Entertainment, and Travel may be much stronger at drawing replies, whilst Retail and Ecommerce tweets may gain lots of retweets as consumers share the best deals.
Brands should look closely at available data to refine and optimize their Twitter strategies, focusing on the way consumers are consuming and engaging with their messaging on the platform.
You can download ExactTarget’s full ‘Social Engagement Benchmarking Report for Twitter’ here.