A new study released by ExactTarget finds consumers who are active on Twitter are three times more likely to impact a brand’s online reputation through syndicated Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer. Here’s how that breaks down:

Reason to Twitter Company or Brand (% of US Twitter Users)
Reason to Twitter	% of Users
Get updates on future products	38%
Stay informed about company activities	32
Receive discounts and promotions	31
Get updates on upcoming sales	30
Ger free samples, coupons, etc	28
For fun or entertainment	26
Get access to exclusive content	25
Learn more about company	25
Show support to company to others	23
Share ideas, provide feedback	20
For education about company topics	14
Recommended	14
Get direct message from company	10
Source: ExactTarget, August 2010

While the information is focused on these tweeting consumer habits, the correlation between tweeting about a company/brand and a local church is very similar. In both instances, the experience determines why they’d tweet about either entity.

In the survey above, it’s worth noting that of the 13 ‘reason to Twitter’ the top 8 – over half the list – are because of a benefit to the consumer. In church speak, this means that the person is interested in what you’re doing and is motivated to tweet about you. The implication for churches is to have a constantly updated, useful Twitter feed(s) so they can follow and discover benefits for themselves.

According to the report, daily Twitter users are about three times as likely as internet users on average to upload photos, four times as likely to blog, three times as likely to post ratings and reviews, and nearly six times as likely to upload articles. Church translation: your Twitter followers are sprayers – people who will talk about their experiences with your church, share their thoughts, and generally make their feelings known online. In other words, your Twitter users are highly influential and worth your attention.

I think it’s also important to note that, given some love and attention, these people can be fantastic online advocates for your church and ministries. Raving fans who spread your message for you are exactly the kind of viral messaging you want online.

Content/Research sources: ExactTarget and the Center for Media Research

I found some of these stats to be very educational. They show us, as local churches, the impact and signficance of leveraging texting, such as Twitter, as an important strategy for these key demographics (and beyond).

• Nearly 60% of mobile phone owners use their phones to text
• 94% of teens make up the largest user group - 13 to 19 age group remains the most active, sending more than 500 texts per month on average
• 20-somethings at 87%
• Those in their 40s, usage jumped from 56% in 2008 to 64% this year
• Those in their 50s it jumped from 38% to 46%.

Despite the popularity of mobile data services, of those surveyed:

• 41% do not text
• 70% do not browse the Web on their mobile phones
• 73% do not use email on their mobile phones
• 74% report that they would use voice enablement as a way to make text messaging easier

These trends show a lot of what is working and the growth and adoption rate of older demographics. These trends will continue and make it impossible for churches to ignore the importance of instant communication and conversation via text messaging.

Twitter’s free service, ease of use and meteoric rise in popularity make it one of the most effective tools for churches to use in leveraging text messaging. If you’ve not read it yet, go download a copy of the E-Book, “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter” for only $5.

What say you about this data?

The following data comes from an article by the Center for Media Research (at Mediapost.com). You can subscribe to their daily newsletters for free if you are also interested in this kind of data.

A Netpop study found that social networking has grown 93% since 2006 and 76% of US broadband users (105 million) are active contributors to the web via social media. In addition, approximately 29%, or 40 million broadband users, are regular contributors to the web specifically through social networking sites and are spending increasing amounts of their online time communicating with each other, both one-to-one and one-to-many.

In looking at the social network landscape, Netpop offers these Key findings about US social networkers:

• Social networkers in the US are most likely to be single, employed women, age 18-39 and living somewhere between Indiana and the Atlantic Ocean, or along the west coast.
• A typical social networker connects weekly with an average of 18 people one-to-one, and 110 people one-to-many.
• Social networkers spend an average of 36% of their online time talking and sharing.
• Social networkers use multiple modes to communicate and stay in touch. These include IM (Instant Messages), texts, blogs and microblogs (such as Twitter).

The Insight study reports that, of those individuals who participate in a social networking site, 71% have profiles on two or more different properties, with 26% having established four or more profiles.

Among social networkers who report having two or three profiles:

• 25.6% are 18 to 24 years old
• 23.3% are 25 to 34 years old
• 14.7% are 35 to 44 years old
• 15.6% are 45 to 54 years old
• 18.4% are 55 to 64 years old

Among people with four or more profiles:

• 31 percent are between the ages of 25 and 34
• 14.1 percent are 55 to 64 years old

Source: Netpop Connect Social Networkers US, December 2008

There’s some really interesting data in there that shows the trending towards online communications habits. The fact that we’re seeing a wide cross-section of age demogrpahics using multiple online profiles (such as a combination of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ning, etc.) is shattering the myth that only “young people” are using these online tools. Certainly, there’s a larger percentage of younger generations using it, but that’s to be expected. What’s most intriguing to me were the numbers of those even up to 64 years old who are leveraging these 21st century digital tools.