13 years after its release, people now know about Twitter and its great popularity.

Today, Twitter has 4,100 employees and is the 4th most popular social media platform in the United States and that alone is enough reason for any marketer and/or business to learn how to use Twitter.

1. Know Your Audience!

First of all, it is a great communication tool to use with your followers. Twitter is a great way to show your customers who your brand is and what it stands for.  You can also use it as a customer service tool where you can respond to feedback and criticism about your brand. 85% of Twitter users said that they think it is important that a business provide customer support on Twitter.

Twitter can also help you generate leads, if you tweet about a new product or service, you can reach a lot of people which can generate traffic in sales and leads. Another great thing about Twitter is that you can see what your competitors are up to and what people are saying about them.

The platform has 326 million monthly active users (MAU) and 100 million daily active users. Every day, 500 million tweets are being shared. This means, there are a lot of people using Twitter every day and so it is a great place for any business to be.

So, Who Are The Users Exactly?

Twitter users consist of 24% male and 21% female.

There are 261 million international Twitter users and69 million of those users are in the US! Outside of the US, the 3 countries with the most users are Brazil with 27.7 million, Japan with 25.9 million and Mexico with 23.5 million users.

37% of users are between the ages of 18-29 and 25% are 30-49 years old. In America, 36% of all people aged 18 to 29 years old use Twitter.

According to Twitter, 80% of their users are affluent millennials, so if millennials are your target audience, you should definitely make sure to have a Twitter strategy!

However, statistics show that only 6% of all American teens consider Twitter to be the most important social network, they are more frequent users of Instagram and Snapchat!

Interestingly enough, 80% of Twitter users are accessing the platform via mobile devices and 93% of all video views are on mobile. Therefore, it is important to always make sure that the videos or content you share on Twitter is mobile-friendly!

Twitter is also known for news-sharing and live-updates about events happening around the world. So, when 74% of Twitter users say that they use the platform to get their news, it’s certainly comes as no surprise.

Fun Fact: Twitter is also the platform used by most American government leaders; 187 heads of state have official Twitter accounts. Donald Trump has even said that he wouldn’t be president today if it weren’t for Twitter! He uses the platform to respond to what, according to him, is considered as unfair media coverage and speaks directly to the voters. As his tweets are often controversial, he and his tweets are often trending on the platform which also gives him A LOT of free publicity!

2. Know Your Metrics!

How Can Businesses Target These Users And Really Measure the Benefit From Using Twitter? Even if you’re not planning on becoming the president of The United States, you and your business can still benefit a lot from using Twitter! There are a few things you should look at when it comes measuring the metrics of your Twitter account.

There are different tools that you can use, and one of them is actually Twitter’s own analytics tool. The first thing you want to understand is your audience, and in Twitter Analytics you’ll find a tab called, Audience. In Audience, you can see the number of followers you have and if you have gained or lost followers in the last 30 days. You will also be able to track and learn more about your audience. You can get insight into what type of device they are using, their language, gender, location and about their behavior.

There is also an Overview and Lifestyle tab where you can find out about popular topics among your audience. Another thing you can see is what age group or personas your audience is, such as millennial’s, parents, teenagers etc. All of these things are important to know so that you can optimize the content you share with your audience.

In Twitter Analytics, there is also a way to get a deeper insight into your own tweets and what is working and what is not. If you go to the Tweet tab, you can get an overview of the impressions, engagements, and engagement rates (engagement divided by impressions) for each one of your tweets. You can also see your most popular tweets, that way you can see what your audience has liked in the past and recreate the formula for future tweets!

There Are Many Other Analytic Tools That Track Your Audience And Tweets. Twitter Analytics Is A Good Start.

Twitter is such a useful marketing tool for small businesses and major companies alike. Knowing your target audience and how to reach them is crucial for businesses. Adapting and implementing an effective Twitter marketing strategy will create the right followers, and ultimately, the right customers! The possibilities are endless!