If you’re just starting out with your ecommerce venture, social media is an avenue you’ll want to include as part of your marketing strategy.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat… these are channels that present a gold mine of opportunities with massive potential to increase coverage and awareness for your brand.
Of the social media platforms, Twitter marketing can be particularly complex, given its short life span and challenging character limit.
So, to understand how to best optimize your Twitter strategy, you’ll first need to be equipped with the most important Twitter stats that answer questions such as:
- How many people use Twitter?
- How popular is Twitter among consumers?
- What are some Twitter demographics to consider?
Fret not. In this article, we’ll present to you 10 Twitter statistics to consider for your ecommerce brand’s social media marketing strategy.
To learn more about how to master a Twitter account, check out this ultimate Twitter guide for business success.
Let’s dive in!
Post Contents
- 1. Number of Twitter Users
- 2. Twitter Demographics: Age
- 3. Twitter Demographics: Gender
- 4. Average Time Spent on Twitter
- 5. Twitter App Store Downloads
- 6. Twitter's Popularity Among B2B Marketers
- 7. Tweets Statistics
- 8. Twitter's Popularity in the US
- 9. Most-Used Emoji in Tweets
- 10. Twitter's Influence On Consumption Habits
- Summary: Twitter Statistics
- Want to Learn More?
1. Number of Twitter Users
One of the first questions that come to mind when considering using Twitter for business success is probably: how many people use Twitter?
According to experts’ recent estimates, there are 353.9 million monthly active users on Twitter in 2023 (eMarketer, 2022). This is a 3.9% year-over-year decrease and makes up 9.4% of the total number of social media users worldwide.
Breaking that down further, we see that it’s the lowest number in three years, and the first time the number of Twitter users has fallen in at least four years. The platform’s user decline is also set to continue into 2024, falling by 5.1% to 335.7 million.
Despite the dip, Twitter’s user base remains in the millions, and with such figures, it should come as no surprise that Twitter ranks among consumers’ favorite social media platforms in the world. And while it may still pale in comparison with Facebook’s statistic of 3 billion active users, there’s no question that the reach of Twitter for any marketing campaign remains huge.
2. Twitter Demographics: Age
Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat may have snapped up the young demographic, but Twitter has its own unique crowd to appeal to.
Approximately six of every ten (59.2%) Twitter users worldwide are between 25 and 49 years old (Statista, 2021). This paints a pretty clear picture of Twitter’s appeal to an audience that’s more mature than those of Snapchat and Instagram.
Even though Twitter may be more widely used among older adults, that’s not to say that it’s unpopular among younger ones. In fact, 17.1% of Twitter’s users (or about one in six of them) are between the ages of 18 and 24. There are even some young teens who use the platform—around 6.6% of Twitter’s global base are between 13 and 17 years old. The remaining 17% or so are users aged 50 and above.
3. Twitter Demographics: Gender
In terms of global gender demographics, Twitter is a lot more popular among males than females. 71.2% of Twitter users worldwide are male, compared to just 28.8% of females (DataReportal, 2022), which puts the ratio of males to females at 2.5 to one.
This is also reflective of the gender demographics of Twitter users in the US, but with a smaller margin. Twitter demographics in the US show 61.6% are males, as opposed to 38.4% females.
Here’s another interesting statistic to ponder when building Twitter campaigns: studies have shown that women interact more with brands on social media than men do. Specifically, female social media users tend to connect more with people via social media communication, while men take on a more passive approach.
4. Average Time Spent on Twitter
The average time spent on Twitter among US consumers clocks in at 34.1 minutes per day in 2023 (eMarketer, 2023). For reference, this is more than rivals Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, on which the average social media user spends just over half an hour per day.
However, it is still shy of consumers’ time spent on TikTok and YouTube, which comes in at 55.8 minutes and 47.5 minutes, respectively.
One of Twitter’s most popular uses is to communicate breaking news. In fact, journalists make up a significant proportion of all verified accounts on Twitter. The bite-sized news in the form of tweets makes for easy and quick consumption.
When it comes to time spent on Twitter, it also helps to know the best time and day to post on Twitter. Recent research shows this is in the mornings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
5. Twitter App Store Downloads
There were 11.7 million App Store downloads of the Twitter app in the first quarter of 2019 – registering a year-over-year increase of 3.6% (Sensor Tower, 2019).
It was also the highest number of app store downloads per quarter for Twitter since 2015.
But despite the increase, the Twitter app is outside the top ten list of most-downloaded iOS apps. It ranks 16th on the list pretty far behind its main competitors – Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. By the way, look here to find out how to get more likes with this list of top Instagram hashtags.
The app isn’t doing too well either on the Google Play store, even failing to make the top 20.
6. Twitter's Popularity Among B2B Marketers
If you need more Twitter statistics to convince you of the platform’s potential, here’s another.
67% of all B2B businesses are using Twitter as a digital marketing tool (Statista, 2018). And given the number of active Twitter users, this figure really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Social media has given rise to the possibility of engaging personally with consumers. So much so that the brand-customer relationship has gone from one that’s uni-directional to bi- and even multi-directional.
In other words, brand messaging is no longer a simple one-sided conversation whereby consumers only listen. They are now well-equipped to react, respond, and interact not only with brands and their messages but also with other consumers who are also engaging.
That said, it’s become increasingly important for brands to not only be present on Twitter but also interactive and engaging.
In fact, 77% of Twitter users have a better impression of a brand when they respond to a tweet. And six out of ten users expect a brand to respond to any customer service requests within one hour.
Check out our guide to use Twitter analytics to improve your engagement.
7. Tweets Statistics
Consider the following Twitter statistics:
- Half a billion tweets are sent out each day (Mention, 2018).
- That equates to 5,787 tweets per second.
- The average Twitter user follows just five brands.
Marketing on Twitter isn’t going to be a walk in the park, given the stiff competition. But that’s not to say it’s not possible.
When launching a social media marketing plan, keep in mind these Twitter statistics. More specifically, think about the ideal times to tweet to reach your key market(s).
Play around with your tweet schedule and analyze your tweets' statistics to determine the best time to send out a tweet.
Social media tools like Buffer and Hootsuite can lend a hand in scheduling and analysis of your tweets to figure out the best times to reach your target audience.
8. Twitter's Popularity in the US
The majority of Twitter users come from the US, with close to 65 million accounts. This is followed by Japan and Brazil, with 51.8 million and 16.6 million, respectively. It’s also one of the top five social media sites in the US, used by more than two in five adults (DataReportal, 2023). This puts it ahead of other rival popular networks such as Snapchat, Pinterest, and Reddit.
As a matter of fact, half of the 10 most-followed Twitter accounts hail from the land of the free. These include the accounts of Katy Perry, Barack Obama, and Taylor Swift. If you’re wondering, Twitter comes in 17th place with just over 65 million followers.
Check out our guide on how you can get more Twitter followers.
9. Most-Used Emoji in Tweets
Of the 3,000+ emojis currently in the Unicode Standard, the “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji is the most popular on Twitter and has been used more than two billion times (Emojitracker, 2019).
A big smiley face with tears oozing out the sides of grinning eyes, 😂 is “used to show something is funny or pleasing”.
And far as Twitter statistics show, three out of four emojis tweeted are positive, with those reflecting a state of joy being tweeted more than sad, angry, fearful, and disgusted ones.
Unsurprisingly, the amount of positive emojis tweeted increases towards the weekend.
77.7% of emojis used on Fridays and Saturdays reflect a positive mode – 1.9% higher than any other day.
10. Twitter's Influence On Consumption Habits
If some of the abovementioned Twitter statistics still aren’t convincing enough for you to launch a campaign, how’s this to tip the scales: four out of ten Twitter users carried out a purchase after having come across it on the social media platform (Digital Marketing Institue, 2019).
This is a great reflection of the increasing influence social media has on consumers’ purchase habits and highlights just how important it is for brands to be present on social media.
Getting your brand involved on Twitter, however, revolves around more than just being interactive and engaging. There’s also the power of social media influencers to consider.
According to Twitter, the purchase intent of users increased over five-fold when were exposed to tweets from both influencers and brands, as opposed to 2.7 times with just brand tweets.
Getting involved in Twitter campaigns with influencers has clear benefits for your business and you may want to begin finding appropriate influencers as soon as possible.
Conclusion
If you have just one takeaway from these Twitter statistics, let it be that it is one of the most important social media sites that should form part of your brand strategy.
And with over 350 million active users, there’s a huge pool of consumers to tap into and engage with. So if you’re not already on there, your ecommerce business may lose out because chances are your competitors are already there.
Summary: Twitter Statistics
Here’s a summary of the Twitter statistics you need to know in 2023:
- There are 353.9 million monthly active users on Twitter in 2023.
- 59.2% of all Twitter users worldwide are between 25 and 49.
- The ratio of female to male Twitter users is roughly two to five: 28.8% female and 71.2% male.
- US adults spend an average of 34.1 minutes a day on Twitter.
- There were 11.7 million downloads of Twitter on the App Store in the first quarter of 2019.
- 75% of B2B businesses market their products and/or services on Twitter.
- 500 million tweets are sent out per day.
- 42.3% of US consumers use Twitter at least once a month.
- The “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji is the most popular emoji on Twitter and has been used more than 2 billion times.
- 40% of Twitter users carried out a purchase after seeing it on Twitter.