'Net Features » State of the Twittersphere

Archives


Increase Font Increase Font
Decrease Font Decrease Font
TEXT SIZE
Advertisement
Advertisement

State of the Twittersphere

Hubspot released its third State of the Twittersphere report this week and found a significant slowing of the growth of Twitter, but that the average Twitter user is more engaged.

Twitter's growth slowed from its peak of 13% in March 2009 to 3.5% in October 2009. That would actually be pretty respectable growth if it weren't for the fact that the platform's international traffic continues to flatten as reported by Comscore, Quantcast.com and Compete.com. Of course, it's smart to factor in the use of tools like TweetDeck which don't require anyone to actually visit the site itself. A better metric might be to look at the total number of tweets posted or perhaps a rolling statistic which addressed how many accounts were updated on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

It's not all bad news for the micro-blogging service. Those using the services continue to be engaged with it:

- the average Twitter account has 300 followers. In July the average was 170
- the average account now follows 173 accounts. In July the average was only 47
- the average account today has posted 420 updates. In July that number was 119

This might just be regular growth but participation is yielding some measurable results - including for us. Twitter represents a small but significant source of WebsiteMagazine.com traffic, though so far we have only 6,400 followers.

Posted Jan 21 2010, 02:59 PM by Peter A. Prestipino
Filed under: ,


Add a Comment

You have to be logged in to comment. Login Now!

Comments

Jeff Swanson wrote re: State of the Twittersphere
on 01-21-2010 3:27 PM

I love using Twitter and I think it will continue to grow, especially locally.

The one thing that I've always found intriguing is followers. There's no way anyone with a large amount of followers can possible keep up with everyone. I think they follow people as a thank you for following them a lot of the time. So, it builds someone's followers, even though those people may not be paying attention to them. I think Twitter will become more organized in this respect. Maybe the lists were a start to that.

GregC wrote re: State of the Twittersphere
on 01-22-2010 9:23 AM

These results aren't too surprising to me.  Early last year people were hearing all about Twitter.  They were curious, went to the site and signed up.  Many then decided it wasn't for them.

Those that liked it, started to really use it.  

As things shake out, I'm sure the usage will settle down to a more steady rate.

LateaseR wrote re: State of the Twittersphere
on 01-22-2010 6:53 PM

Maybe the growth has stalled because Twitter is as GregC wrote, 'shaking things out' getting rid of the spammers and leaving those who truly engage and interact on meaningful levels.