The predictive insight company analysed the followers of seven major supermarkets and found that while overall Twitter follower numbers aren't necessarily related to Christmas sales figures, gaining new followers who are passionate about food and supermarkets can be linked to sales performance over the Christmas period. 

Discount retailer Aldi, for example, saw an 80% increase in combined ‘foodie’ and ‘supermarket’ followers, paired with a 13% increase in sales, while Morrisons saw a 76% increase in Twitter followers in those segments, and reported a 0.2% rise in sales. 

Conversely, Waitrose saw a 1.4% decrease in sales and a lower ‘foodie’ and ‘supermarket’ uptake of 39%. 

“Twitter can offer unprecedented insight into target audiences, and yet many businesses are not using it to its full advantage," said Clive Humby, chief data scientist at Starcount.

“Through our research, we can for the first time see a direct correlation between sales figures and Twitter followers, by drilling down into the complex nature of people’s passions. We found that Twitter followers should not be viewed as a faceless collective, but as a multifaceted group with different desires and interests.

“To gain the upper hand with customers, businesses should be less concerned with the number of Twitter followers they have, and instead start to look at the passions that matter to these followers, and consequently to their business.”