12% of Consumer Tweets Mention a Brand

From Social Media at Work: http://socialmediaatwork.com/2010/07/27/12-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.