Last week, Marketing mag reported on a study by ExactTarget and CoTweet showing consumers becoming fatigued with brand’s Facebook page posts. A similar analysis of brand and consumer behavior across Twitter has now been released and reports similar trends to Facebook usage.

The biggest difference in the social media forms is probably the uptake and amount of active users. While there are over 200 million registered Twitter accounts, there have been reports that up to 80% of users have posted less than ten times, compared to the 600–million strong and predominately active Facebook user base.

The ExactTarget/CoTweet study looked in to why Twitter users stopped posting. 52 per cent of U.S consumers responded that Twitter was “pointless” and 38 per cent agreed it “got boring” over time. The study also found 23 per cent of those surveyed decided to cancel their accounts as they found Twitter “too chaotic”.

The Social Break-Up report is based on the responses of more than 1,500 consumers and identifies how people are changing their online behaviours.

Like the Facebook report, this study evaluated the top reasons people stopped following brands through the social media channel. It found people unfollow brands on Twitter because of their repetitive or boring content (52 per cent), Twitter streams became too crowded with marketing messages (41 per cent) and posts from the company were too frequent (39 per cent).  A further 21 per cent of those surveyed said tweets were too promotional.

“As brands can use Twitter to respond to customers in real-time, Twitter is frequently accepted as more interactive than Facebook or email,” explains ExactTarget senior director Lee Hawksley. “But no other social media channel has such a polarising effect than Twitter.  You either love it or hate it. 

“This is why it’s just that little bit harder to provide users with genuinely relevant content. However, it’s important to remember that the users who are active on Twitter are the most active and involved online.”

The Social Break-Up also reveals the following Twitter statistics:

·         17 per cent of  online consumers have created a Twitter account yet only 9 per cent are currently active

·         71 per cent of people who follow brands on Twitter expect to receive marketing messages from companies through the medium

·         48 per cent of active Twitter users check Twitter several times a day and 64 per cent check Twitter at least once a day