12% of Consumer Tweets Mention a Brand

Digital marketing agency 360i has analyzed more than 1,800 tweets published between October 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010, focusing on tracking Twitter usage by consumers and marketers, and released a white paper and slide deck summarizing the results.  Key findings include:

Consumers use Twitter to talk about brands:

• More than 90% of tweets come from consumers
• 12% of consumer tweets mention a brand
• Types of brands mentioned most often:  Social Network (22% of mentions), an Entertainment brands (17%) or Technology brand (17%)

Brands can do a better job of talking with consumers:

• 43% of consumer tweets are conversational (@replies to other users)
• Only 12% of all marketer tweets demonstrate active dialogue with consumers, signifying that most of them aren’t tapping Twitter’s full potential.  Only 1% of consumer tweets that mention a brand are part of a conversation with that brand

Most consumer tweets about brands are neutral/informational:

• When it comes to talking about brands on Twitter, consumers are largely sharing news or information about the brand (43%) or reporting use of or interaction with the brand (35%).
• About one-fifth of tweets mentioning brands demonstrate an outward opinion of the brand – though only 7% of mentions demonstrate negative sentiment toward the brand. Most mentions fall into the neutral/informational category (82%) and 11% reflect positive sentiment.

360i’s summary of the research: http://blog.360i.com/pov/360i-whitepaper-twitter-the-consumer-marketer-dynamic