6 Surprising Twitter Stats – Is Twitter Really That Big?

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By now, almost everyone has heard of the Social Media network called Twitter. But is it really all that big? Web security company Purewire did an extensive evaluation of millions of Twitter profiles. The effort was to show off their new social influence tool called Tweet Grade. Purewire’s research uncovered some interesting Twitter stats.

Surprising Twitter Stats

According to Purewire’s data, many Twitter accounts appear to be inactive. Twitter won’t give out its own numbers, but Purewire was able to pull together data from 7M Twitter user profiles. Here are some of the surprising Twitter stats that they found:

1. 40% of Twitter users have not tweeted since their first day on Twitter. These accounts were most likely created and subsequently forgotten about.
2. Approximately 25% of Twitter users are not following anyone. While two-thirds are following less than 10 people. These accounts were created but are not being used regularly.
3. “Twitter is used more as a mass medium for receiving information, rather than as a way to interact with others. The proof is shown by evaluating the followers and friends of Twitter users”.
4. More than 1/3 of Twitter users have not posted a single tweet, and almost 80% of the users have less than 10 tweets (i.e., while Twitter is billed as a great collaboration tool, a large number of users are there to consume content, not distribute it).
5. Approximately 30% of Twitter users do not have any followers, and 80% of Twitter users have less than 10 followers (i.e., for many users, their posts are not being widely tracked or read).
6. 50% of Twitter users are following more people than they have as followers, and another 30 percent of Twitter users are following the same number of people that are following them (i.e. users are aggressively trying to attract followers by hoping they will “follow back” but have been unsuccessful).

Surprisingly, many Twitter users “have abandoned their accounts shortly after creating them.” Also, Purewire found that a significant percentage of users are inactive and not showing signs of account activity.

We Love Twitter, What About You?

It’s clear that celebrities like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher have made Twitter the “flavor of the month”, but there are many people out there who will never quite get it. That’s alright with us. There are bound to be folks trying out different Web apps that won’t end up using them. We do it all the time. We still think Twitter has become a valuable mainstream communication platform and its usage will continue to evolve and grow.

Be sure to check out Purewire’s new Twitter grading tool Tweet Grade to see if you and your followers pass the test.