Marketers think Twitter is a great idea, why doesn’t the public think so?

Is Twitter mainstream yet? Advertisers certainly think so,
too bad consumers don’t agree.

A new study by Harris Interactive finds a polarising
attitude between marketers and consumers towards the microblogging website.

About half of advertisers surveyed (45%) believe Twitter is
an essential business tool and is poised to grow exponentially over the next
few years, compared to about one in 10 consumers who also say so.

The other half of marketers find no benefit to Twitter
(21%), say that the website’s 15-minutes of fame are over (17%), or have no idea what
Twitter is (17%).

Measured against consumer attitudes, more than two-thirds
(69%) of the general public don’t know about Twitter, 12% think it’s poised for
growth, the same amount believes its strictly for young people, marketers and media
professionals, while only 8% think its time to find the next best thing.

Imagine Twitter as a hundred marketers packed into an empty
room, bouncing ideas off each other, ready to pounce on the next oblivious
consumer who waltzes through the door.

Marketers think Twitter is a great idea, why doesn’t the
public think so?

One might make the assumption that Twitter is not as
mainstream as we – in advertising and the media – believe it to be.

The survey results show, that advertisers and marketers expect Twitter to grow, its
effectiveness as a marketing tool will most likely hinge on consumer education:
consumers need to learn more about what it is, why they should pay attention to
it, and why they should tweet.

It is the
advertisers and marketers who should play the lead role in promoting consumer
education if they truly want to move Twitter beyond infancy and into its ‘tween
years.’