Analysis of Group Twitter Usage

We recently conducted a survey to find out how groups were using Twitter. Did regular groups find it an indispensable tool? Or a meaningless distraction? The answer, not surprisingly, is “it depends.”

We started by asking groups to rate how useful they found Twitter for performing the most common group functions. They rated actions on a five point scale, with five being “most useful” and 1 being the “least useful.”

Groups gave Twitter high marks for its ability to network with other groups, but low marks as a tool for communicating within its own group. In essence, it’s more valuable for external communication than internal communication.

This is partially explained by the results to our question, “What percentage of your group actively uses Twitter.” On average, 14.8% of the membership of any given group use Twitter. With such a small percentage of rank and file group members on Twitter, it’s little surprise that Twitter is not yet often used for group organizing.

Usage Statistics

The popularity of Twitter services like CoTweet and HootSuite, which help many users maintain a single Twitter account, demonstrates that a single Twitter handle often has many drivers. We wanted to see how many sets of keys exist.

The majority of group twitter handles, 58%, are maintained by more than a single person. The average number of users lurking behind a single handle is 7.8, with a median of 3. About one in ten Twitter handles have an ownership in the double, or sometimes triple, digits.

Furthermore, these people are paying attention. The typical group member checked their group’s Twitter account 2.5 times a week, or about every other day.

Essentially, for every group you interact with on Twitter, you should assume the immediate audience is three to eight times higher. If your social media interaction is strong enough to trickle down to the 85.2% of the group who don’t use Twitter, your message will be amplified an additional sevenfold.

Groups are the gateway to building effective offline word-of-mouth. Contact Groupable today for best practices in targeted group engagement.