NEW YORK, NY – The Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble, they're only made of clay, but is Twitter here to stay?

Harris Interactive's new study with LinkedIn Research Network suggests advertisers are a lot more optimistic about the staying power of that web platform for pointillist pontification than regular people. The firm ran an online poll of 1,015 marketers and agency types and 2,025 consumers in June, asking their opinions about Twitter and its uses as a marketing platform and found some disparities.

The firm says that about 45% of marketers polled felt Twitter will grow exponentially, while two thirds of consumers said they didn't have an opinion, and only 12% of the latter said it is something young people and the media will use. Eight percent of consumers said Twitter is already a digital has-been.

Advertisers, per the poll, don't have much confidence about Twitter as an ad platform, either, as only 8% of those polled said Twitter is very effective for promoting products and ideas; half said it is "somewhat effective," and one-third said is "not that effective."

Similarly, only 8% of consumers say it is very effective for promoting ideas and products and 42% believe it is just somewhat effective. Three in ten (31%) consumers say Twitter is not that effective and 19% feel it is not at all effective for promoting products and ideas.

Not surprisingly, more of the younger advertisers than older had an opinion on Twitter. The firm says 11% of 18-39 year olds don't know enough about Twitter to have an opinion versus 20% of advertisers 40-49 years old and 21% of advertisers 50 and older. Even fewer consumers know or care about Twitter, per the poll. Fifty-five percent of adults 18-34 years old surveyed said they don't know enough to have an opinion, compared to 80% of those 55 and older.

Most marketers said awareness is the challenge. Twitter's effectiveness as a marketing tool, they said, depends on consumers knowing what Twitter is, and why they should pay attention to it. "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," says the firm.

Copyright 2009 MediaPost Communications. All rights reserved. From http://www.mediapost.com. By Karl Greenberg.
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