Twitter Tabbed Top Social Media Site for Business

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Tom Gray
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A social media survey of 200 social media leaders by Abrams Research reports that Twitter was selected as the top spot for business dollars by a 40% to 15% margin over Facebook. However, asked which site they’d be most likely to pay to access and Facebook got the most votes. LinkedIn showed well in both categories.

Click the Image for the Abrams Research Survey (pdf)

Highlights of Social Media Questions:

A total of 7 questions were addressed, these I found to be the most interesting…

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

  • Facebook 32.2%
  • Linkedin 29.7%
  • Twitter 21.8%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

  • Twitter 39.6%
  • Linkedin 21.3%
  • YouTube 18.8%
  • …

The juxtaposition in Twitter in Question 1 & 2 is a head scratcher for me. The Social Media gurus would pay for Facebook over Twitter but recommend their clients to pay for Twitter with Facebook not even in the top 3. Curious. (Comments on this?)

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? …

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares”)
5. Jetblue
…

5. What’s the best way to monetize social media?

  • “Freemium” use, i.e. a free basic model followed by a fee for advanced options (i.e. storage, analytics) 45.5%
  • Targeted ads (e.g. contextual ads) 20.3%
  • Research (polling, surveys, trend-mining) 8.9%
  • …

Click the link to for the 10 Page (PDF) report of Abrams Research Social Media Survey.

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  • http://www.goldencompass.com Sheryl Kay

    Interesting stats on these tools.

    It makes sense to me that businesses MUST pay attention to the twitterverse. For quick rants/raves consumers typing 140 characters on a cell phone to reach not just their followers, but potentially thousands of their followers followers could have more of a viral impact than the more limited numbers who would see a post on LinkedIn or Facebook.

    The real-time aspect of twitter also makes it important for a business to monitor what’s being said (negative or positive) so they can respond almost immediately. Companies who understand this, and use the technology wisely will have an edge on those who don’t.

    Case in point? Starbucks is coming out with “instant” coffee (say it ain’t so)! But they have a twitter campaign and immediately respond to any of us addicts to offer us reassurance (and free samples). Very savvy.

    Thanks for the updates, Tom.

  • http://www.gemsolv.com Tom Gray

    Sheryl,

    Starbucks? Free Samples! Where do I go to get mine!

    Good points about Twitter and you’re right about business monitoring Twitter. Bank of America is one who’s catching consumer complaints or concerns at the point of origin – somebody’s tweet – and proactively reaches out to help resolve the issue. They’ve positively impacted 300 + customers since starting their campaign in January of 2009.