Microblogging social media site Twitter Inc has rarely boasted that its users are racially more diverse compared to other Internet users in the US. Now, however, it is taking steps to leverage on its demographics in its bid to generate revenue after going public, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The newly-minted public firm engaged the services of Nuria Santamaria, a marketing veteran, in November to become Twitter's multicultural strategist. She will be spearheading the company's efforts to put its focus on the social media's black, Hispanic and Asian-American users, the report said.
Citing data from Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, the report said the groups comprised 41% of the 54 million users of Twitter in the US. This is higher than Facebook's 34% and more than the 33% of all Internet users in the country.
According to Santamaria, advertisers are interested about learning more about Twitter's racial and ethnic minorities. This includes getting data like basic numbers and the languages they use for tweeting. Twitter started presenting data to advertising agencies last month culled from a coming report that revealed Hispanics tweet more frequently than others. They seem to be interested in technology as evidenced by the rise in activity when technology is the topic of conversation, the report said.
Starcom Media-vest Group's Multicultural Division Executive Vice President and Director of Digital Advertising Marla Skiko told the WSJ that some advertisers get astonished when they hear about the microblogging site's demographics. Skiko said that getting Santamaria to the Twitter team will enable the company to lure advertisers whose target audiences are racial and ethnic groups.
The report said Santamaria is kicking off her campaign with Hispanics. Although the number of Hispanic users on Twitter is about parallel to the online population in the US, it is a rapidly-growing and getting increasingly wealthy.
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