Nielsen: Twitter's growing really, really, really, really fast

Nielsen's five fastest-growing community sites in the U.S.

(Credit: Nielsen)

A small new survey from Nielsen about the five fastest growing "member community destinations" in the U.S. reveals what we all kind of knew already: Twitter is at the top. From February 2008 to February 2009, it clocked in at a whopping 1,382 percent growth rate. That's to be expected, considering the amount of press the still-without-a-business-model microblogging service has gotten in recent months.

In third place is Facebook, with 228 percent growth year-over-year according to Nielsen. That's not terribly surprising, as Facebook is still growing in the U.S. but not quite as exponentially as it once was.

There are, beyond that, a handful of interesting things to note. Two of Nielsen's top five, for example, aren't social networks but rather wiki creation services: Zimbio (240 percent growth) and Wikia (172 percent growth). And in fourth place is Multiply, which probably got a surge of activity when it recently acquired the MSN Groups service that Microsoft was spinning off.

But a blog post from Nielsen said that Twitter (which counts the 35-to-49 age demographic as its biggest, the statistics said) may be growing even faster than its numbers say. "PC Web usage of Twitter.com doesn't tell the whole story," the post by Nielsen Online's Michelle McGiboney read. "The ability to (use) Twitter via a mobile phone--whether through the mobile Web or via text messages--is a driving factor in the social network's success. In January, 735,000 unique visitors accessed the Twitter Web site through their mobile phones. The average unique visitor went to Twitter.com 14 times during the month and spent an average of seven minutes on the site."

An additional 812,000 users accessed Twitter via text message on the AT&T and Verizon carriers alone.

[dascha1]

I'm sorry, is this the camps of Neilsen cloud computing?

[spiffy1001]

I am not making fun of Twitter, I have never even been to their website, so please don't hat me for asking, but how is it any different than a Facebook status?

[alex-cnet]

It's really the community that makes it. It's not just Facebook status either. By design, all updates are publically available and searchable. And with such a large community all updating what's happening to them the content is always current. In fact, if you follow the right people and search tags, you can get all kinds of news like traffic, weather, posts from all the blogs that you follow, etc as soon as it happens. You couldn't have searched Google for iPhone and get the 3.0 software updates as they happened, for that you would need to search for a live blog. But if you searched Twitter you got people's thoughts and news as it happened during the keynote.

But not only is it a source of news, it also has that social aspect to it. You can talk to your friends, family and even celebrities, bloggers, artists, etc. It has a much more open community allowing you to follow who ever you want.

These are things Facebook status updates cannot do. Facebook, in comparison is very closed and more of "I'm going to the mall," or "I'm eating." Twitter has evolved past the question "What are you doing?" and into all things current.

Just look at what the idea of always being able to post something has inspired in these developers:
http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps

Of course there are areas where it lacks. It's definitely not easy to "follow the right people" or learn to use it as a source of news. You might find it hard to keep within the 140 character limit. CNet is a great place to learn about twitter and what it's capable of. There was a recent Real Deal episode about twitter, check it out.

[CathyWebSavvyPR]

No hating here, I enjoy helping folks who are new toTwitter understand it. For folks new to twitter: Twitter's updates are similar to Facebook's status updates, but the culture of Twitter is different - it is more real time. You can ask for help on something and have 5 answers in 30 seconds. Instead of following just your friends, Twitter makes it easy to connect with strangers, customers and potential clients who share an interest in the same things you do, without letting them into your whole life as can happen on Facebook. Don't get me wrong, Facebook is great, but I use them differently.

But some of Twitter's features are not obvious the first time, be sure to click your @Replies tab once you've been on a few days - to see folks who reply to your messages and offer help when you are new. To reply back to someone, you hover over their message (or tweet as it is called) and click the arrow that shows up, that put's their name above, and then you type your message. It also has a search function to help you find folks to talk to by searching for a keyword or subject. Be sure to ad a bio, link to a blog or Facebook page and a photo (that way folks won't assume you are a spammer - spammers often don't have a picture)

Facebook's new format, is more like twitter, but the userbase and way Twitter works is different. Instead of answering the question "what are you doing," try answering what cool blog/article/story did I just read that I want to share with others, or what would my contacts (followers) want to know about - what knowledge can I share that would be useful to them. To check out someone's tweets and bio, click the @username and it takes you to their page - if you then click the follow button, you will see there messages show up, if they follow you back, they will see what you send out. Pick a topic you are interested in, go to http://search.twitter.com put in the word or phrase - trains, dogs, social media and see what comes up. then click view tweet, and sign up!

If you have any questions http://twitter.com/CathyWebSavvyPR (hope this link doesn't seem spammy - just want to help folks who might be new to Twitter. Give them some place to start.

[Universal_Indie_Records]

It's just easier to connect to different people using Twitter and my twitter is tied to my blog as well. Everytime I update my blog, it updates my twitter page which in turns updates my Facebook status.

Really, it's hard to explain Twitter to those who have never used it.

But for me, I'm an indie hip hop label and I run a hip hop magazine site. Visits to my sites have grown by 20% since I tied Twitter to my wordpress sites. I've landed a few graphic design jobs through twitter, found out how to get my music on a Showtime soundtrack, and been to quite a few music industry functions where I could promote my music, connected with a person who could have gotten me into the Grammys (had I been able to afford the tickets), etc.

It's like a Facebook status.... but so much more..

[sciontcya]

Count me as another person who doesn't get "twitting"
I don't see any advantage to what I do now...
Can someone please enlighten me?
Plus, it sounds SO stupid! :)

[tyrwhite]

Facebook grew by 45 million users compared to Twitter's 6.5. Using the natural log to account for size you find that facebook is growing at a faster rate than twitter.

[CrystalSedona]

I have been on Twitter for about 2 months and I love it. I have met a community of social networking experts and I have learned a lot from them about the different Twitter apps. I have over 600 followers. I enjoy how it connects to my Facebook page and it has increased my Facebook friends from 150 to over 500. I have made many new friends by posting my Tantra Tip of the Day on Twitter. It is an interesting form of community and a new way to network.
Crystal Dawn Morris AKA @CrystalSedona
www.TantraForAwakening.com

[stiennon]

You give credit to the press for Twitter's amazing growth numbers. I really think the press are just late to the party. It is not the reporting that is causing Twitter's growth. It is Twitter's growth that has become newsworthy and is generating press interest.

[Daniel_Tunkelang]

The recent press, particularly around SXSW, surely gave Twitter a bit of a boost, but Twitter's been growing steadily for a while, and I think even those who dislike it have to acknowledge its growing popularity. It's not as mainstream as Facebook or even LinkedIn, but it's also a bit newer.

While I have lots of gripes about Twitter--the arbitrariness of the 140-character limit, the obsession among so many of its members with follower counts--I am a big fan and heavy user. I'm even trying to advocate for better social norms that would make Twitter more valuable.

If you're interested, check out a couple of my blog posts:

http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/01/07/the-real-twitter/

http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/01/13/a-twitter-analog-to-pagerank/

The latter has actually been implemented: http://tunkrank.com/

[hansmagnus]

Note the point that lot's of people don't use the Twitter site much. Instead they use apps like Power Twitter (Firefox plugin), or my personal fave TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/).

[new_media_works]

re "The ability to (use) Twitter via a mobile phone--whether through the mobile Web or via text messages--is a driving factor in the social network's success."

What technology enables a "mobile device" (whether phone or netbook or laptop or PDA or whatever you want to call it) to have the ABILITY to USE twitter.com (or any other website)?

[tymwalt]

I'm stoked to see Twitter do well. Congrats.
I'm also stoked to see Multiply take the 4th spot!

[Twitter-Background]

Congrats to Twitter! It feels like Facebook back in 2005 when it was buzzing but people weren't sticking with it because not enough of their friends were on it. Now, if you're not on it, you are out! Same with Twitter in a couple years!

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[Twitter-Background]

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