You know what really grinds Twitter’s gears? The fact that its cultural influence extends far beyond its 238 million total mDAU, a figure that puts it well behind most other social apps in terms of direct usage.

For years, Twitter has been trying to re-frame the discussion around user counts, arguing that Tweets are actually seen and read by a lot more people than this. It just can’t track them – though it has tried, mostly through graphic depictions, in which Twitter suggests that hundreds of millions more people see Tweets, even without actually logging in to do it.

Tweet, Tweet, Chirp

Twitter had hoped that explanations like this would have helped re-frame the app’s perceived value and show the market, and potential ad partners, that there is real exposure value in Tweets – even if it’s not on Facebook’s scale, which it will always be matched up against.

Sadly, that hasn’t worked. Twitter is still seen as an underachiever, based on its user count and many of its more recent struggles with bots, adult content, etc. can all be linked back to its overarching need to keep that number high, no matter what. Based on all the allegations, and surprisingly logical counter-arguments by Elon Musk and his team does kind of put Twitter’s 0.0038% monthly test ratio in dim light, suggesting that Twitter isn’t overly interested in really cracking down on bot traffic.

Still, Twitter continues to try and showcase its expanded value, with the platform today publishing a new overview of how many people rely on Tweets for news content. Data from Twitter, Pew Research, Sparkler, and YouGov indicate that:

  • 85% of people on Twitter watch, read, or listen to the news at least once a day.

  • 83% of people on Twitter Tweet about the news.

  • 55% of people on Twitter get their news from Twitter, more than other platforms.

  • More than 80% of you journalists rely on Twitter for their jobs.

  • 62% of Twitter news consumers say that Twitter helps them find new news outlets.

That would suggest that most people are not Tweeting much, if at all. Even so, the numbers do underline the role that Twitter plays in news engagement and dissemination, which could point to the platform’s broader reach as an aggregator for other sites, with many journalists reliant on Twitter to stay informed. This means that Twitter is indeed highly influential, even if it doesn’t see the same level of usage as other apps.

The Wrap

The same concept is illustrated in this graph from r/dataisbeautiful. In other words, Twitter is more valuable than many may think, and more than raw user numbers actually represent. Maybe this is why Elon was so keen to buy it, and maybe, under new management, there could be a way for Twitter to better harness this value, both for its own benefit and in terms of improving the overall news and information ecosystem.

Either way, it’s interesting to note the oversized role that Twitter does play, even if it’s also beholden to market expectations in maintaining user counts, however it can, even to its own detriment.

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Sources 

https://bit.ly/3BBdhrY