Twitter Goes Female (and What It Means for Your Social Media Marketing)

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Over the past three years, one million active Twitter users have tweeted at least one billion times according to Beevolve. Not every participant has made their voice heard since one out of four Twitter users has never tweeted. With this growth, the composition of Twitter has changed significantly and this has implications for your marketing.

5 Twitter Facts (and What They Mean for Your Business)

Here are five important facts about Twitter that have an impact on your business.

1. Twitter skews female. Specifically women outnumber men on Twitter 53 percent to 47 percent. Since as technology platforms most social media venues tend to attract men as early adopters. Therefore this shift toward female usage signals that Twitter is maturing.
   
   
2. Women tweet more than men on average. Women tweet 610 times on average while men tweet 567 times on average. This makes sense since women are known as communicators. Further, this is consistent with communications usage on other platforms and devices.
   
   
3. Twitter usage by sex varies by country. In areas where Twitter is a more mature platform, women are the dominant segment. By contrast, in regions where Twitter usage is newer, men are the dominant segment. Specifically, men tend to dominate in India, Brazil, and France. 
4. Higher female Twitter usage is consistent across age groups. In other words, being female trumps age in terms of Twitter use.
   
   
5. Twitter conversation focus has shifted to family. This reflects the interests of the majority of women. This is an opportunity for B2C marketers looking to engage women around topics related to their products.
   
   
6. With over 90 percent of U.S. businesses on social media, the shift on Twitter represents a significant marketing opportunity. As the third largest social media platform after Facebook and YouTube, Twitter is becoming a mass social media venue. This is particularly important for B2C marketers.

3 Strategic Social Media Marketing Elements to Check

Before rushing to implement new Twitter tactics, at a minimum, this shift requires the following three strategic elements. Even better, take the time to re-examine your entire social media marketing strategy.

1. Re-evaluate your marketing persona and social media persona. Take into consideration these changes in Twitter usage as they apply to your target audience.
2. Assess your editorial calendar and related social media calendar. Determine where you may need to modify how you leverage Twitter to create new content and/or distribute content.
3. Ensure you track your Twitter marketing effectiveness. Use social media calls-to-action.

5 Actionable Twitter Marketing Tactics

To leverage Twitter to achieve your marketing goals, here are five actionable marketing tactics. In the process, ensure you make your tweets count!

1. Build your Twitter base. While most marketers have started expanding their Twitter following, it's worth repeating. Without a community on Twitter, your message reach is limited. Therefore, leverage your owned and other marketing to support these efforts. At a minimum, let your audience know that you're active on Twitter. (Here are the secrets to building a Twitter following.) While Twitter is good for engaging with prospects and customers, research has found that Twitter isn't a conversation!
2. Use Twitter to distribute content created for other venues. Utilize Twitter to help you deliver your social media and content marketing to a broader audience. This is particularly important for family-related information. Don't forget to use hashtags! Of course, this doesn't hold for promotions!
3. Distribute family-related content. Given the popularity of family-related topics, create one or more Twitter feeds that offer a tip of the day or other regular information. Alternatively, use Twitter to curate other people's content on the topic.
4. Answer prospect and customer questions. You can do this by having a Twitter presence for your customer service as Comcast does. Alternatively, you can accomplish this by responding to common customer questions by tweeting content from your blog or other content site. Marcus Sheridan of the The Sales Lion calls this the secret sauce.
5. Promote one "Deal of the Day." While outright promotion is not acceptable on social media platforms, you can make one value offer per 24 hours if you're transparent about it.

The bottom line is that Twitter matters and, regardless of your business focus, it's critical to integrate into your marketing plans.

What do you think of this new Twitter research and how will you incorporate it into your 2013 marketing plans?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen