Compete’s Study Shows Mobile Users More Active On Twitter In US and UK

Twitter has partnered up with survey and statistics company Compete to work out how active Twitter users are on mobile devices as opposed to desktop devices.

The powers that be at Twitter think of their social media site as a mobile-influenced messaging service, the tweet’s 140 character limit inspired by the constraints put on the classic SMS. The speed at which someone can compose and publish a tweet and the instantaneous nature of the information available to anyone make constant access to Twitter of upmost importance to many of its users.

Twitter Mobile makes access constantly available to its users, whether they are at the office, at home, travelling or elsewhere. Twitter has constantly been improving its mobile apps on iOS and Android to provide its users with the best service possible. In the last month alone, Twitter has updated its mobile apps twice: updating Search to surface older tweets and improving both the Search and Discovery interfaces.
This is Twitter’s view:

Mobile is in our DNA at Twitter, which means our platform can connect your brand to users in real time, wherever they are. Because mobile ads on Twitter are part of the organic content experience, they create a particularly powerful vehicle for brands to create reach, build frequency and drive engagement.

60% of Twitter’s 200 million users log in to Twitter via a mobile device at least once a month. To illustrate the importance of its mobile apps to the success of the service overall, Twitter contracted statistics company Compete to conduct a survey looking into Twitter mobile use in the US and the UK. Last week, Twitter released the findings of Compete’s survey in the US.

Twitter Mobile use in the United States

This is what they discovered:

Working with Compete, we found that these primary mobile Twitter users in the U.S. are more engaged in several key ways. Namely, they are on the platform more often, they interact more with Tweets and they follow more brands.

There are five conclusions that Twitter thinks will help inform advertisers:

1. Mobile users are on Twitter more than desktop users, despite being on the go:


For Twitter advertisers, these statistics suggest that the best audience to target on Twitter are mobile users. Advertisers are encourage to create campaigns with interactive content suited to a mobile device’s lower processing power and smaller screen: “think about content that’s easy to interact with and consider the experience beyond the Tweet too – for example, link to sites that are optimized for mobile.”

2. Generally, Twitter Mobile users are younger:

It is no surprise that 18 to 34 year olds are 52% more likely to access Twitter on their mobile, given that younger demographics have adopted mobile technology to a greater extent than their older counterparts. It is important for advertisers to bear the statistic in mind, however, when they are running campaigns on Twitter.

3. Users of Twitter Mobile are more active during the day:


For advertisers, perhaps the most important statistic above is that primary mobile users are 169% more likely than primary desktop users to access Twitter while they are shopping. People are looking at Twitter while engaging in a little retail therapy, so a well-timed promoted tweet or trend may be seen by someone in a position to purchase the product promoted: users “may be shopping near your store and a Tweet about your current promotion might get them in the door”.

Primary mobile users are also active on Twitter at home:

Primary mobile users also access Twitter inside the home. Sixty-six percent use Twitter in front of the TV at home. Primarily mobile users are 32% more likely than the average Twitter user to use the platform while they are watching television.

Some users will turn to Twitter instead of watching commercials, so advertisers should take advantage of commercial breaks to advertise to large television audiences.

Advertisers should integrate their Twitter and television campaigns to get the best results. Say a company’s advert utilises a hashtag, people will immediately access Twitter on their phone to review the hashtag, where they can be targeted with more advertising.

4. Primary mobile users engage more often with Twitter content:


Advertisers should use links, interesting content and calls to action in their mobile marketing campaigns on Twitter, as primary mobile users are more likely to interact with your company’s tweets.

5. Twitter users engage more with brands on mobile devices:

The average Twitter user follows five or more brands. Users who primarily access Twitter on mobile are 96% more likely to follow 11 or more brands. They are also 58% more likely to recall seeing an ad on Twitter than the average Twitter user.

If advertisers weren’t convinced before, the statistic above makes it obvious how powerful Twitter Mobile is as a marketing tool compared to Twitter on desktop devices.

Twitter Mobile use in the United Kingdom

On Monday, Twitter posted an infographic on its blog which detailed Compete’s discoveries concerning Twitter Mobile use in the UK. Although the questions in the UK were slightly different than those asked in the US, advertisers should come to the same conclusions regarding Twitter Mobile users.

The one thing that UK and US Twitter users have in common is how long they spend on Twitter in front of the television. 66% of UK and US Twitter users are active on Twitter while watching TV, highlighting the importance of integrated multimedia campaigns.



Do you mostly access Twitter on a mobile device? Does your own experience with Twitter correlate with Compete’s findings?

Contact us on Twitter or leave your comments below.


Will Sigsworth

Follow us @SocialMediaF & @WillAtSMF

www.socialmediafrontiers.com