Twitter Demographics

34% of Twitter users are females and 66% are males.

22% of US adults use Twitter.

24% of All Internet male users use Twitter, whereas 21% of All Internet Female users use Twitter.

There are 262 million International Twitter users (users outside the US) which make up 79% of all Twitter accounts.

There are 48.35 million monthly active Twitter users in the US.

Roughly 42% of Twitter users are on the platform daily.

US accounts for just 31 million monetizable daily active Twitter users.

The total number of Twitter users in the UK is 13.7 million.

38% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 29, 26% users are 30–49 years old.

56% of Twitter users $50,000 and more in a year.

80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials.

93% of Twitter community members are open to brands getting involved, if done so in the right way.

The top three countries by user count outside the U.S. are Japan (35.65 million users), Russia (13.9 million), and U.K. (13.7 million).

80% of Twitter users accessing the platform on a mobile device, and 93% of video views are on mobile.

The figures above were supplied by Omnicore.

Impressed yet? Back to the original question. Why are you not using Twitter yet and if you are, are you making full use of it?

Twitter is the home of Viral

Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter doesn’t rely on people following people to spread the word. It is the home of viral, because of one simple thing.

It organises its topics using a hashtag or tag (#) and this unique system allows people across the globe to connect instantly to discuss immediate issues in real-time. Someone in Taiwan can join a conversation in the US simply by including the same tag in their tweet.

This has a large number of benefits. For Twitter, it allows them to find and sort through the masses of data that are produced every minute and group these conversations.

This ability allows them to show you in real-time which topics are becoming popular, in other words, what’s trending. Every user on every other social media platform will turn to Twitter if they want to spread something quickly.

How? They just turn to the hashtag. A few tweets and their friends, fans or like-minded souls across the globe climb on board. In minutes, you can go from zero to hero or anti-hero across the world.

That is the power of Twitter. No other platform can do this. Where others specialise in particular fields, Twitter doesn’t. It is social media’s rumour mill, a place where everyone, from your neighbourhood plumber to Barak Obama can communicate freely and with an equal voice.

You’re never going to get Donald Trump to read your letter. Tweet your thoughts and include his tag and you could even end up being retweeted by him. That’s the true beauty of Twitter.

So how can you use this for your business, product or service?

Understanding the Hashtag

I’ve written an earlier piece on the use of the hashtag, which I’ve linked in the footer. It examines the use of tags in detail.

This article will focus more on why the tag’s effective use negates the need for followers. You don’t need to have tens, hundreds or thousands of people following you to use the platform effectively.

You simply need to understand how the hashtag works and then use these when you tweet.

To do this effectively and target hashtags that fit your business, product or topic, you need to do a little research. Twitter helps you out by showing you, country by country, what’s currently trending.

Screenshot by Author

You can see these trends by clicking on search and select your country of choice by using the gear icon. The option to view trends globally is also available. By default, Twitter will show you local trends.

I would recommend opening trends that are of interest and looking at the top tweets. They will often contain additional hashtags on the same subject, including ones that are occasionally not spelt correctly. For instance, a recent trend with Johnny Depp, showed the following tags.

#JusticeforJohnnyDepp

#justiceforJohnnyDepp

#JusticeforJohnnyDeep

#justiceforjohnnydepp

#JusticeforJohnny

#JusticeforJohhny

Notice the words that are spelt differently and the use of capital and lower case letters. These make a difference. Which ones should you use? That’s easier to answer.

The simplest way to check these is to type them into your tweet. Don’t use the whole world and try the options with upper and lower case letters. Twitter will help out by showing you which tags are currently enjoying the largest amount of traffic.

This changes by the hour, so be quick and don’t become lazy. Check these for each tweet you send. Three hours is a long time in the Twitterverse and things can change dramatically.

Why followers don’t matter

If you’re the anti-social type but you would still like to use social media, Twitter is your best and possibly the only option. You can use it without the need to have followers.

I would recommend spending a few minutes to ensure your profile is set up properly. People will view it and if you’re too lazy or anti-social to engage, them at least expend a bit of effort ensuring your profile is professional.

You can turn off your Direct Messaging or DM to avoid being bothered by people. The only way anyone will be able to reach you now is by ‘tagging’ you. That works as follows.

The @ symbol on twitter can be used as a sort of hyperlink to your account. It uses your Twitter name, which is separate to your actual name and you can set this up when you create your account or edit it later. Mine is @robturnerwrites whilst my account displays the name, Robert Turner.

To get my attention a user can simply include this name in their tweet using the @ symbol. I will be notified of this tweet in the mentions section of my notifications. You can choose to respond or not.

You can compose and send a tweet with 0 people following you. The secret is using the correct hashtags we’ve discussed above. Here is a practical example.