Although a recent study  industry indicates that the vast majority of marketers have embraced the idea of using Twitter as a marketing tool, there are still plenty of skeptics who are uncertain about whether or not this channel holds any real business value for them.

Perhaps the following 10 Essential Twitter Facts will help to clarify the scale, impact, and potential value of engaging on this particular platform.

1. There are 75 Million Twitter users worldwide.
Compared to Facebook's staggering 600 Million users, this might seem like small potatoes, but considering Twitter's undisputable ability to quickly disseminate information and activate participation on a global scale, we'd best not underestimate the power of that relatively smaller user base.

2. Collectively, Twitter's active user base generates 140 Million "tweets" per day.
By itself, this volume of conversation is mind-blowing. What's even more incredible is the massive spike in tweets that follows a global news incident, like the recent disaster in Japan.

3. Roughly 7% of Americans are currently using Twitter. 
Again, compared to Facebook's adoption rate of roughly 50% in the US, Twitter is still in mainstream adoption infancy. But with 460,000 new accounts being added daily and a 182% spike in mobile users over the past year , it's clear that Twitter's growth chart is heading up and to the right. 

4. The average Twitter user has 27 followers.
The average Facebook user, by comparison, has 130 friends. At the other extreme are celebrities like Lady Gaga who have nearly 10 Million followers, big brands like Zappos that have nearly 2 Million followers, and humble inbound marketing software companies  that have roughly 107,000 followers.

5. Twitter users are more educated than the general population.
63% of Twitter users have a 4-year college degree or higher, as compared to only 40% of the general population. If your product/service/company is targeting a more educated customer, there's a good chance they're tweeting—or will be soon. 

6. Twitter users have higher incomes than the general population.
47% of Twitter users earn $50k or more per year; 24% earn more than $75k. Compare that to 33% and 18% among the general population, respectively. 

7. Twitter users tend to be "early adopters".
19% of Twitter users are among the first to buy/try new products, compared to only 10% of the general population. An additional 25% of Twitter users buy/try new products before others (though not "first") as compared to only 12% of the general population. 

8. Twitter plays an active role in purchasing decisions.
42% of Twitter users rely on this channel to learn about new products/services, and 41% of them share opinions about products/services via Twitter. Soliciting opinions about products/services and seeking out discounts/coupons/sales are also popular Twitter-based activitities. 

9. 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy brands that they "follow".
Whether interaction on Twitter is the cause of this greater allegiance or not is unclear—but it certainly seems that extra Twitter love doesn't hurt. 

10. Companies that use Twitter average 2x more leads per month than those that do not.
This, perhaps, is the most compelling reason of all to invest some time on Twitter—particularly if your target customer is educated, affluent, and tends to be an early adopter.

In case you'd like to share these stats with your boss, colleagues, or clients, we've pulled them together into a downloadable PDF file below. All data sources on the page 12. 

Download 10 Essential Twitter Stats [PDF] >

Now start tweeting!