The Pew Internet & American Life Project released findings from a recent poll they conducted examining the profile of Twitter users. As someone who has been using Twitter for the past year to engage with others who share the same passion for social media and politics, the findings were both refreshing and surprising.
According to Pew, 8% of American adults who use the internet are Twitter users. Prior findings by Pew did not focus specifically on Twitter but rather looked at Twitter and other services that allowed individuals to share updates about themselves or to view others updates. Therefore, back in September of this year, Pew had reported that 24% of internet users were using Twitter and other services but those findings were being interpreted by many as Twitter usage. Therefore, Pew decided to include a question that focused specifically on Twitter.
In November, Pew added a question to their tracking survey which asked on line adults if they used Twitter. With the overall survey reporting that 74% of American adults are internet users, the 8% of on line adults using Twitter translates into 6% of the entire adult population using Twitter.
The table below shows the basic demographic breakdown of that population.
TWITTER USAGE BY DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP
% Of Internet Users in Each Group Who Use Twitter
Pew noted the following:
Some of the groups who are notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use include:
Young adults: Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than are older adults.
African-Americans and Latinos: Minority internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white internet users.
Urbanites: Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.
Given the size of the sample, when you pull out only those who use Twitter, the surveys ability to accurately examine how users engage with the service has a pretty significant margin for error, but nevertheless, it is still useful for getting a general sense of how the service is being used.
The study also went on to examine the types of updates that are being posted on Twitter. According to Pew:
Overall, observations related to users’ personal or professional lives are the most popular types of updates, while location-based tweets and links to videos are the least commonly mentioned:
72% of Twitter users in our sample say that they post updates related to their personal life, activities or interests. A total of one-in-five Twitter users (19%) say they post personal updates once a day or more.
62% of those we queried said they post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis.
55% of these Twitter users share links to news stories. About one in ten (12%) do this at least once a day.
54% of these Twitter users say they post humorous or philosophical observations about life in general, with 16% doing so on a daily basis.
53% of these Twitter users use Twitter to retweet material posted by others, with 18% doing so on a daily basis.
52% of these Twitter users send direct messages to other users, with 11% doing so on a daily basis.
40% use Twitter to share photos with others, with 12% going so at least once a day.
28% use Twitter to share videos with others. Fewer than one-in-ten Twitter users (8%) do this once a day or more.
24% use the service to tweet their location, with 7% of users doing so on a daily basis.
Though the sample size is relatively small, from my personal experience and that of my friends who tweet, the findings appear to be relatively accurate. So what is your experience? Do the findings accurately reflect your experience. Do you fit in?
Popularity: 12% [?]
