3.6% Of UK Tweets Mention Brands

Research from social media monitoring firm BrandWatch gauging the current state of Twitter and which type of brands UK users mention the most often. Overall, 3.6% of all tweets mentioned brands, with female users being the more likely to refer to a brand in their posts compared with men.

This means that brand names are almost as popular as TV, film and sport and even more prominent than music, celebrities or news updates, BrandWatch said.

BrandWatch looked at 14,000 randomly selected tweets posted by 1,000 members of the social networking and micro-blogging service. The service established that food and drink products and services, clothing and technology were those enjoying the strongest popularity with Twitter members, accounting collectively for 60% of brand mentions.

Food and drink brands, in particular, generated 32% of Twitter messages, with most of them referring to snack foods, i.e quickly consumed products, which underscores Twitter’s position as a platform for mobile users. Clothing and accessories brands yielded another 17% of Tweets – they were much more female-orientated than the other categories and chiefly concerned fashion brands, which were often referred to in the context of competitions.

The technology sector yielded 11% of tweets. Unsurprisingly, it was a more male-orientated category, with Apple and its iPhone product being most mentioned.

Among the other categories, general retailers generated 11% of tweets referring to brands and entertainment scored the same result. Transport brands were mentioned in 4% of tweets and beauty products delivered 3% of tweets.