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Twitter is one of the “older” social networks. Still, I often have the impression, that especially with young entrepreneurs and small businesses, Twitter is also one of the most undervalued networks. The important Twitter facts seem to elude the average entrepreneur and blogger.

Somehow it seems that the benefits of being active on Twitter are not overly obvious. And regardless of the ease of use, how to best use Twitter, build relationships and grow an audience on Twitter still seems to be a secret to many small business marketers.

The following Twitter facts and statistics should give you an impression that even while Twitter may not be the shiniest or most distinguished social network, it has a relevant place in the social media marketing sphere – and not being active on Twitter still means missing out for most businesses.

If you are missing some Twitter facts in the following list that you would like me to add – please do not hesitate to comment.

1. Twitter was created in 2006

The first tweet was sent by Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006

2. Hashtags were introduced in 2007

Chris Messina suggested the use of ‚#’ in 2007

Today, tweets with hashtags clearly get more engagement than tweets without hashtags. One or two hashtags are optimum, while more than two hashtags can result in a drop in engagement.

Image Source: Buffer Blog

The most tweeted hashtag up until today is #FF (Follow Friday). If you are looking for the most relevant hashtags for your niche, start with a keyword research.

3. Twitter has 313 Million monthly active users

In Q2 2016 3 Million new users registered with Twitter, bringing the total of monthly active users to 313 Million.

Source: Venture Beat

3. Twitter has more than 336 Million monthly active users (1. Quarter 2018)

In Q1 2018 6 Million new users registered with Twitter, bringing the total of monthly active users to 336 Million.

Source: Memeburn

4. 500 Million visit Twitter monthly but do not log in

You do not have to log into Twitter to see the shared content and tweets. And a lot of people do not log in, in fact on average 500 Million people us Twitter but do not log in.

Source: Twitter Blog

5. The average Twitter account has 208 707 followers

… and is a woman with an iPhone…

Image Source: Yourescapefrom9to5

As of June 2016 the average Twitter user has 707 Twitter followers.

Source: DMR

The Twitter accounts with the most followers are Katy Perry with over 93 Million followers, followed by Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and Barack Obama.

Image Source: Twitter Counter

6. In Q2 2016 Twitter made 602$ in revenues

Revenues increased from 595$ in the first quarter of 2016 to 602$ in the second quarter of 2016.

Source: Venture Beat

7. 29,2% of US social media users are Twitter users

That makes for 66 million Twitter users in the US.

Source: Statista

8. 82% of Twitter users are mobile

A majority of Twitter users access Twitter via a mobile device!

Source: Twitter

9. Twitter has 3860 employees (worldwide)

40% of these employees are working in a technical role.

Source Twitter

10. Twitter supports over 40 languages

Twitter has over 35 offices worldwide.

Source Twitter

11. 83% of world’s leaders are on Twitter

That is 139 world leaders from 167 countries had an account on Twitter that they either set up themselves or a government official did it for them.

Source: PRNewswire

12. 500 Mio tweets are sent every day.

That is an insane 6000 tweets every second.

Source InternetLiveStats

During the 2014 Fifa World Cup Final over 618k Tweets were sent in one single minute.

Source: Campaign

The most retweeted tweet ever was a selfie from the Oscars 2014 with over 3.3 Million retweets.

13. The top five markets for Twitter are US, Japan, Indonesia, UK and Brazil

Together these five countries produce 50% of all tweets.

Image Source: Statista

14. 58% of the top brands have more than 100k followers on Twitter

65,8% of US companies use Twitter for marketing purposes. 92% of brands tweet more than once a day.

Image Source Simply Measured

15. The most tweeted Emoji is “Tears of Joy”

By March 2016 it had appeared an incredible 14.5 billion times on Twitter.

16. 60% of people expect brands to answer a query in a tweet within an hour

And 76% are likely to recommend a brand if they experience friendly service on Twitter.

Source: Twitter

17. Tweets with images get more reactions

When you tweet, are you looking for a retweet? Images may just be what your tweets are lacking.

Images can increase click-throughs by 18%, result in 89% more likes, and get you 150% more retweets.

18. 63% of Twitter users find Twitter a relevant source for news

59% percent of these Twitter users have used Twitter to keep up with news from an even while the event was still going on.

19. in the first 4 months after introducing Twitter polls, 1.7 billion votes were cast

Twitter introduced their “polls” feature in October 2015. By January 2016 a 1.7 billion votes were cast.

Source: TechCrunch

20. 82% of Twitter users watch Video on Twitter

90% of video views on Twitter happen on a mobile device.

Image Source: Here

21. Twitter increase the character limit to 280

Originally a tweet never contained more than 140 characters. A trial period with a limited number of people showed that most people still used less or just a little bit above the 140 character limit. Thus the short-messenger character of Twitter would stay alive.

In November 2017 Twitter finally announced that they would increase the character limit to 280.

Source: BBC

22. 10% of the users create 80 of the tweets

This is based on US numbers.

Source: Pew Research Center

23. 44% of accounts are abandoned before ever tweeting

These accounts are set up and then never used.

Source: Slash Gear

24. 43% of accounts have sent their last tweet over a year ago

Not very active these users…

Source: Slash Gear

25. 391 Mio Twitter accounts have no followers

Source: Slash Gear

26. 8.5% of Twitter accounts are automated

This number has to be taken with care. Twitter says, this number includes Twitter accounts that access Twitter through apps like Tweetdeck – which is a Twitter-owned app. Still, these automated accounts add up to 23 Mio of the active Twitter accounts.

Source: Quartz

27. Twitter could fill books

The tweets of just one day would add up to a book of 10 million pages – in just one day. And that is an old number from 2011 – Today there are even more tweets.

To give you a comparison, these book pages are an equivalent of 8163 copies of Leo Tolstois “War and Peace” – a normal person would need 31 years to read this much.

Source: Twitter

28. 76% of users are likely to recommend a brand…

… if they experienced om friendly customer service on Twitter.

Source: Twitter

29. Twitter’s ad revenues grow by 37% year-by-year

Most of the advertising revenues are made on mobile (88%.)

Source: Twitter Shareholder Letter

30. Videos on Twitter are highly likely to get retweets

In fact, tweets with videos are 6 times more likely to receive a retweet than tweets with images.

Source: Vidooly

More Twitter Facts?

Some of these Twitter facts and statistics may surprise you; some may be common knowledge, and some may simply be fun to know. Some of the above numbers are merely interesting and some should have an impact on your social media strategy: Use them to optimize your Twitter activity.

These statistics mainly tell one thing: Twitter is still relevant, it is also relevant for marketing. Twitter is also not going to disappear soon.

If you are looking for some more social media statistics, you may want to check this post on Pinterest statistics or this one on Instagram statistics.

Can you add some interesting Twitter facts that I missed and should include in my list? Let me know in the comments!

Join our free Email Course to learn how to grow an audience and traffic from Twitter:

All the basics in 4 Days, 4 Emails!

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