Twitter may not be as popularly used as Facebook is, but it is still among the top networks in social media marketing. As one of the most used networks by users, Twitter has a lot of importance to the digital marketing community. Whenever marketers start a new campaign on a new social network, the ultimate goal is to drive sales, after everything else. With a time of enormous amounts of shopping quickly approaching, it is important for marketers to know whether their social media marketing efforts are going to lead consumers to the sales that they desire. Twitter recently conducted some research to find out just how their network has been and will in the future, impact consumer purchasing decisions.
Over the course of a few weeks, Twitter partnered with Compete, a market research and analytics company, to conduct a study of 2,600 US internet consumers that would help to determine the impact that Twitter marketing has on internet shopping. The study was based on those consumers who saw the Tweets from over 700 popular brands, while condensing the study to desktop activity and excluding mobile and tablet activity.
Here are the two major facts that came of the results of this survey, from Compete’s reporting:
- Twitter users who see Tweets from retailers are more likely to visit retail sites
Key takeaway: Twitter users are big online shoppers, but big brands aren’t the only retailers that benefit. Twitter brings people closer to a wide range of interests so niche retailers who engage the highly engaged audience on Twitter often see stronger results than mass retailers.
- Twitter users who see retailer Tweets are more likely to make online purchases
Key Takeaway: People who see a retailer’s Tweets are even more likely to make an online retail purchase than they are to visit retailer websites. This means Twitter users arrive on a retail website with a higher intent to buy.
The everyday internet user, who does not necessarily see a Tweet from the company beforehand, visit retail websites at a rate of 90%, while those internet users who do see the Tweets from retail businesses visit retailers at a 95% rate. Of the entire report, that fact may be the most important. The 5% difference between the rates of visiting clearly shows an impact from Tweets by companies. Also, these general internet users made purchases from retail sites at a rate of 27%, and Twitter users being impacted by brand Tweets made purchases at a rate of 33%.
The idea behind the survey was to prove that Twitter had an impact in online sales, and it has done just that. With a 5% difference in visitation rates and a 6% difference in purchase rates between general internet users and Twitter users, there is a clear and defined impact from Twitter on the decisions of internet shoppers. Twitter has made a great move putting out information like this, especially during the time of year where internet shopping really counts.
