Twitter Statistics and Info on Usage

“Eight percent of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users. It is an online activity that is particularly popular with young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities.” - Pew Research Center, December 2010

In less than 4 years, micro-blogging/social networking site Twitter has grown to tens of millions of users. With that, we have seen its demographics change as people adopted the tool, brands embraced the medium, and celebrities popularized it. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently released a new report on who is using Twitter. We will take a look at that data in this article.

“One-quarter of Twitter users check in multiple times per day for tweets from others, while one in five never check for new material on the site.” - Pew Research Center, December 2010

Twitter Use by Demographic Group

Highlights:

• Young adults, aged 18-29 are more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
• Minority internet users (African-Americans and Latinos) are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white internet users.
• Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
• Women are slightly more likely than men to use the service.
• College-educated users are also slightly more likely than average to engage on Twitter.

How often do users check Twitter for updates?

What and How Often are People Tweeting?

When it comes to the kind of content people are sharing on Twitter, Pew’s survey found that 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% post updates related to their personal life, activities or interests. One in five (19%) say they post personal updates once a day or more.
• 62% post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis.
• 55% share links to news stories. 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% retweet material posted by others, with 18% doing so on a daily basis.
• 52% send direct messages to other users, with 11% doing so on a daily basis.
• 40% share photos with others, with 12% doing so at least once a day.
• 28% share videos with others, with 8% doing so once a day or more.
• 24% tweet their location, with 7% of users doing so on a daily basis.

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Tags: Corrie Davidson, demographics, information, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, Social Media, social networking, statistics, stats, twitter, usage

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.