Now that my book, Twitter Power, is moving up the charts (#15 on Bookscan last week!), I have a lot of people asking me how effective Twitter actually is for business.
Certainly, it is difficult to put a price tag on relationships that have been built on Twitter.
It's also very hard to quantify the effects of branding on a Twitter profile page correctly designed.
But the question remains...
Does Twitter use convert to sales?
It's a big question that would take a great deal of research.
But I thought I would take a first step by conducting a poll that would attempt to at least scratch the surface on the question.
Before we can know if Twitter converts to sales, we have to understand our reach.
Yes, I have over 43,000 followers as of this writing, but how many of those followers are actually engaged within close time proximity to when I make a tweet?
At 7:42 pm CDT on April 10th I tweeted the following.
It took no time at all for the @replies to start coming in.
In two hours, I received 240 or so replies.
More than 50% of the replies came within the first ten minutes, which is to be expected. Twitter is immediate and the stream never stops flowing. Most people never have an opportunity to catch up with the stream.
There is much more analysis to be done on this and I plan on doing so.
But for now I thought you might be interested to see the actual results of the question, "What's your favorite color?"
Blue was the clear winner, by a longshot.
Here is a pie chart showing the results by percentage.
I'm short on time to go into more detail right now, but this is some interesting discussion fodder.
What say you?
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
April 11, 2009 11:04 AM
I say that's also some good information for designers of all kind for creating ads, websites, etc. that get the most attention!
April 11, 2009 11:06 AM
I'm new to twitter, just a few days new so this is interesting data. I have just over 50 people that I'm following and sometimes it can be tough to keep up, when somebody has in the 10's of thousands I can imagine that seeing a tweet is "luck of the draw" so to speak.
I guess if one were to prune people (the people following you) that had followers in the thousands you would have better "reach", that is that more of their followers would see their tweets. Just a thought...
April 11, 2009 11:09 AM
This is an interesting question as it relates to the type of people who use Twitter, but I disagree that it even scratches the surface of the question, "Does Twitter use convert to sales?"
I'd argue that it doesn't even relate to the question, and here's why: a person's favorite color often has nothing to do with how they buy. My favorite color is blue - I love to wear blue, and have a lot of it in my house. But when I think of most of my online purchases, there wasn't a lot of blue involved. In fact, I find myself drawn to reds and pinks, mostly (which I believe relates to the fact that I'm a woman). For instance, the TwitPwr banner across your site turns me off, I just don't like that shade of blue for whatever reason. Which is another point: there are so many shades of each color, and each shade evokes a different visceral reaction - just like I can't really explain why I don't like the above banner, it's a gut-level response, which is important online where everything is moving at lightning speed.
The only reason I bring it up is that I would hate to see people read this and immediately rush off to change their Twitter backgrounds to blue, when there is a LOT more involved in the sales process (such as copy- which trumps color any day, the type of product being sold, and the target market's gender).
April 11, 2009 11:26 AM
My online product sales are up about 350% since I read Joel's book, Twitter Power, and started tweeting - especially my book, TIGER TRAITS:9 Success Secrets You Can Discover from Tiger Woods. Could be a coincidence. I don't think so as it didn't happen last year at this time.
April 11, 2009 11:44 AM
Interesting info, Mr. Joel C.
Twitter is a waykewl little tool that will (hopefully!) make
us all think more for ourselves.
I look forward to hearing/participating in the discussion.
Thanks for sharing.
Keep the faith and keep being YOU!
~Ronald
TrueBeliever & HopeDealer
April 11, 2009 01:28 PM
I must confess that i didn't know what
it was all about. I just received your
test and i quickly replied to it.
A question Joel, if i may:
How can i boost my followers' list?
April 11, 2009 04:07 PM
Very interesting post.
I'll be waiting for another post with more detailed research.
Keep up the good work.
April 11, 2009 04:18 PM
Great discussion and it does increase my web site traffic a little but as for sales - not yet. I do believe that it's a great tool if used properly.
My experience has been that it's diffucult starting a conversation unless you direct your tweet to an individual.
As far as the numbers go, Joel has over 40,000 followeres and only 250 replies in 2 hours. Is that good?
April 11, 2009 08:05 PM
Purple is an over-achiever.
April 12, 2009 08:31 AM
I am surprised that purple is so popular. Lol.
Hey, this information is really useful. I mean, it will be great if you are coming up with a product and not know which are the colors you will want have ur product coated with.
But just wondering, are the colors picked along with its tints as well? Or is it just based on the people's impression of the colors and they simply thought of the shade themselves?
April 13, 2009 01:06 PM
Hey Joel,
Twitter power is awesome and your are one of my favorite tweets!
April 14, 2009 09:57 PM
Sorry Joel.....I was out of town and didn't take my leashes, (cell phone and laptop- lol!!).....darn! As far as it goes I think if people knew you were going to do a survey you would get a larger response and therefore be able to more properly adjust your opinion. Until then I think you are the greatest and give much to those that follow you and if they are a far reach? Who really cares? Everyone likes the feeling of importance and if they get it by saying "I'm following Joel Comm on twitter!", then so be it. Makes you a hero in their eyes.
April 22, 2009 03:09 PM
Joel, it's an interesting hypothesis, that one's favorite color would convert into sales. I'm sure you're going to be some testing on this. let us know what you come up with: is there a direct correlation between color and conversion?
May 3, 2009 08:23 PM
are yuo sure for this i want to know.