Bain: 80% of Twitter engagement is link clicking

The social network's real-time access to myriads of content and high levels of user engagement is why marketers keep coming back for more.

Adam Bain of Twitter

FORTUNE -- Hours after Apple (AAPL) announced deep integration of Twitter into various aspects of its iOS mobile operating system, Twitter President of Global Revenue Adam Bain appeared at the Federated Media Summit here in New York City yesterday to discuss the social network's growing reach and high levels of user engagement.

"What we're seeing is that people are using Twitter to instantly connect with things that are most meaningful for them," Bain said, who cites examples like people Tweeting about NASA's last space shuttle flight, Retweeting a charity link to benefit victims of the earthquake in Japan, or Shaq announcing his retirement from basketball via Tweet. Apparently, it was that ubiquity that spurred Apple to integrate the social network across iOS5, which hits devices this fall.

And despite some questions -- including some raised by Fortune -- over the last year regarding its monetization efforts, Bain provided some updated marketing and user engagement numbers indicating there's real potential for the social network to turn a substantial profit and take advantage of what he views as a relative lack of engagement in digital advertising.

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Posted in: Adam Bain, Barack Obama, IOS (Apple), McDonald's, New York City, Promoted Tweets, Stephen Colbert, Twitter

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