Although Twitter received a little less love this past year, it remains one of the most popular social media networks in the world. Twitter has 313 million monthly active users, and 79 percent of those users come from outside the United States. Each day, there are over 500 million tweets, with 82 percent coming from mobile users. Despite a slowed growth rate, Twitter is still a rockstar and you would be silly not to use it.

If you find yourself having a harder time using the social network, it’s probably not the platform but your strategy. It’s important to refresh your social media activity from time to time because the algorithms change and the way people use social networks may change, too.

Let’s explore a handful of Twitter stats that will help you make more of your time.

Quick Rundown on Twitter

First, let’s recap what Twitter looks like today – it has come a long way in 11 years!

  • 1.3 billion accounts created

  • 313 million active users

  • More popular among men

  • 40% of users are 18-34 years old, 36.7% are 35-54 and 22.9% are 55+

  • 80% of users access the platform via mobile

  • 80% of millennials use Twitter via mobile

  • 500 million people visit monthly without signing in

Now that you know who is using the platform, let’s dive into the ways that you can boost your success on Twitter.

How Twitter Connects Brands and Consumers

  • 85% of followers feel closer to a brand after following them

  • 77% of users feel more positively toward a brand when they respond to a post

  • 70% of users that follow small businesses retweet content

  • 72% of followers are likely to buy a product from the brands they follow

  • Companies that use Twitter see a 19% increase in customer satisfaction

  • Promoted tweets boost offline sales by 29%

Practical Tips to Boost Engagement

  • Brand engagement is 17% higher on the weekends

  • 12-1 pm is the most popular time to tweet

  • Tweets with one hashtag get 29% more overall engagement

  • Tweets with links have double the chance of being retweeted

  • Tweets with images and links have 150% more overall engagement

  • Tweets with videos get 1.9x more favorites, 2.5x more replies and 2.8x more retweets

Don’t Forget to Follow Good Twitter Practices!

Finally, don’t forget to follow the basic principles of a strong Twitter presence. Optimize your Twitter bio so that people can find you easily. To boost the quality and quantity of your audience, don’t just follow random people. Follow industry influencers and retweet/favorite other tweets. Use hashtags and images in your posts, though less is more with hashtags. Lastly, monitor your analytics so that you know what’s working and what’s not.

Twitter is powerful and effective. It should be part of your social media marketing strategy. If you’re not seeing the same response from the network, try changing up your strategy using the insight above!