Most Twitter Statistics Are Worthless

by Scott Bishop on August 19, 2009

Twitter Statistics Are worthless

Twitter statistics are being published weekly.  More and more companies are creating studies about Twitter.  Seeing a new report pop up each week in my Google Reader is becoming pretty common.  Are any of them valuable?

Pear Analytics, a US market research firm based in San Antonio, Texas, recently conducted A short-term study on the types of messages that are sent on Twitter.  Their conclusion, 41% of Tweets are “Pointless Babble”.  For a full report click here.

I’m not here to challenge or breakdown this particular report…I’m here to challenge any and all Twitter reports about how people are using Twitter.  I do think it is valuable to know statistics like when the most tweets are sent.  But many statistics are worthless.  41% of Tweets are “Pointless Babble”?  Who cares.

There is no Twitter spam, there is no such thing as a bad Tweet, there is no Twitter “pointless babble”.  Why?

Because Twitter is only and exactly how you make it.  Period.

Twitter is anything you want it to be.  If I have spam in my Twitter feed, it is 100% my fault.  No one can send me a DM (direct Message) without me following them first, and anyone who I perceive to be sending spam, I have the option to unfollow.  If anyone is sending “pointless babble”, I can choose to unfollow them if I perceive their tweets to be of no value.

Most Twitter statistics are junk because they miss the point of the social network, it’s what we make of it.  One mans “pointless babble” is another mans treasure.  If you read behind the lines of many of these reports, you can sometimes find some hidden gems.  But their conclusions are often weighted or at least biased.

Here’s a quick list of some Twitter Statistics I’ve created:

  • 84% of Tweeters have complained about spam in a tweet
  • 100% of Tweeters have spam because they followed a spammer
  • 73% of research firms create Twitter statistics solely because they know they’ll get instant free PR

Most Twitter statistics are junk.  What statistics have you found useful?

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a social media and marketing strategist.  He also blogs about social media communities at AxeroPulse.com. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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Tagged as: google, market research firm, pear, Statistics, tweets, Twitter

Article by Scott Bishop

Scott Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and is the Director of Social for an integrated marketing firm. He is an avid blogger and active across the net. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

Scott has written 127 awesome articles for Us.

  • http://www.dshan.me/blog DShan

    Amen. When you think about it at a macro level, people trying to say what Twitter is and thus pass judgment on its value are pinning down a conversation that changed a few minutes later. Twitter isn't even what it was last month.

    It is, however, a moving and breathing representation of human behavior and intellect. It's sharing, giving, taking, and pointless babble. It's opportunity and it's private. It's whatever you make it.

    Nailing it to the wall will always leave you with an entirely undermine-able stance.

  • http://barcelonacreative.com/blog Juli Barcelona

    Enjoyed your post Scott. I agree, Twitter can be a number of things to each individual. As much as you can try to just tweet out articles or what someone may consider “valuable”, it is also a communication tool. And communicating and building relationships is not just about pushing out information to others. It's so much more than that.

    Plus, like you said, we can all choose who we decide to follow and not follow and which conversations we want to be a part of.

  • http://www.bigteeth.tv big_teeth

    100% of People typing this comment right now agree with you Scott. Well said amigo.

  • http://www.bigteeth.tv big_teeth

    100% of People typing this comment right now agree with you Scott. Well said amigo.

  • tdhurst

    Well put. What you see via twitter and what I see are different. The public timeline means nothing, too. I bet if you listened to a mashup of every conference call in the world at once, they'd all sound worthless, but we're not going to give those up any time soon.

  • http://monicaobrien.com monicaobrien

    Agreed. General studies like this are not useful to individuals. What matters isn't how much pointless babble there is on Twitter – what matters is how much of it is in your stream.

    It's the same thing with general marketing tips, like “The best time to post on Twitter is 3am PST.” I think, “But when is the best time for you to post on Twitter?” Really, just look at your analytics package – you'll find far more information than some stupid study conducted for publicity.

  • http://twitter.com/thescottbishop Scott Bishop

    Thanks for the comment!! I really like your description as a “moving and breathing representation of human behavior and intellect”. That's a brilliant description.

  • http://twitter.com/thescottbishop Scott Bishop

    Thanks for taking the time to comment Juli. Agreed, Twitter is a main communication tool for so many. I use it as my #1, followed by text message.

  • http://twitter.com/thescottbishop Scott Bishop

    Haha. i just feel like all these stats are coming from thin air. So I guess I 100% agree with you.

  • http://twitter.com/thescottbishop Scott Bishop

    That's a perfect comparison Tyler. Well said my friend.

  • http://twitter.com/thescottbishop Scott Bishop

    Yep! Good call Monica. Putting Twitter in a general box that applies to all is nearly impossible. Tips on profile creation can be more universal…but not on usage. Thanks for the comment.

  • http://www.theoceanagency.com/blog Daniel Prager

    Great post Scott.
    I could not agree with you more– Most Twitter stats are generally junk.

    Unfortunately, this is a big problem for us folks who base our livelihoods using and selling social media.

    Without viable stats, it makes it difficult to encourage others to adopt Twitter as a tool– whether it be for personal communication/branding, for business growth, or whatever other purpose.

    Fabricated Twitter stats are a reflection of a larger problem– We still don't exactly know how to sell and monetize Twitter. We know it's exciting, we know there have been successes and failures — but numbers beyond user statistics still elude us. Maybe a solid longitudinal study by a respected research firm would give us some helpful information.

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  • http://www.dshan.me/blog DShan

    You're more than welcome…this post was really insightful. Great conversation here!

  • http://twitter.com/PadPax Patrick Bray

    I think that it's clear …about 41% of what goes through the mind of a market researcher at Pear Analytics is Pointless Babble. Maybe more… :)

  • http://twitter.com/thescottbishop Scott Bishop

    Ha, well stated Patrick. I disagree with their view of what Twitter is, but any report of this nature is almost guaranteed free PR. Folks seem to Tweet and RT the info quite a bit. Thanks for the comment.

  • http://twitter.com/PadPax Patrick Bray

    I think that it's clear …about 41% of what goes through the mind of a market researcher at Pear Analytics is Pointless Babble. Maybe more… :)

  • sbishop

    Ha, well stated Patrick. I disagree with their view of what Twitter is, but any report of this nature is almost guaranteed free PR. Folks seem to Tweet and RT the info quite a bit. Thanks for the comment.

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