Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices and younger internet users (those under age 44).
Internet users who already use social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn are also likely to use Twitter (35%), compared with just 6% of internet users who do not use such social network sites.
And, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console or Kindle) use Twitter, compared with 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices and 10% of internet users with one device.
Percentage Of Online Adults Who Use Twitter Or Another Status Update Service (Adult Internet Users) | |
Demographic Group | % of US Adults Tweeting |
All Online adults | 19% |
Sex |
|
Men | 17 |
Women | 21 |
Race/Ethnicity |
|
White (non Hispanic) | 19 |
African American | 26 |
Hispanic | 18 |
Age |
|
18-29 | 33 |
30-49 | 22 |
50-64 | 9 |
65+ | 4 |
Education |
|
Less than high school | 18 |
High school diploma | 17 |
Some college | 21 |
College graduate | 21 |
Household Income |
|
< $30,000 | 22 |
30k-49,999 | 21 |
50k-74,999 | 20 |
≥ $75,000 | 20 |
Internet Connection |
|
Broadband | 21 |
Dial-up | 11 |
Wireless or Tethered |
|
Wireless | 25 |
Tethered | 8 |
Number of Wireless Devices |
|
One | 10 |
Two | 19 |
Three | 28 |
Four or more | 39 |
Social Network User |
|
Yes | 35 |
No | 6 |
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, (August-September), October 2009 |
Survey data shows that internet users who use social network sites are more likely to use Twitter or another status updating service, independent of other factors such as that group's relative youth or propensity to go online via mobile
devices.
Social Network Use & Status Updates (2008, 2009) | |||||
Online Communications | % of Internet Users | ||||
| May '08 | Nov '08 | Dec '08 | Apr '09 | Sep '09 |
SNS | 29% | 37 | n/a | 46 | 47 |
6% | 9 | 11 | 11 | 19 | |
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, October 2009 |
As of September 2009, 54% of internet users have a wireless connection to the internet via a laptop, cell phone, game console or other mobile device. Of those, 25% use Twitter or another similar service, up from 14% of wireless users in December 2008. By comparison, 8% of internet users who rely exclusively on tethered access use Twitter or another service, up from 6% in December 2008.
Analysis also shows that wireless access is an independent factor in predicting whether someone uses Twitter or another status update service. It is not simply because this group is likely to be young or tech-savvy. Owning and using a wireless internet device makes an internet user significantly more likely to tweet.
Age is another strong, independent predictor for use of Twitter and other status-updating services. Internet users ages 18 to 44 report rapid uptake of Twitter over the last nine months, whereas internet users ages 45 and older report slower adoption rates. For example, 37% of internet users ages 18 to 24 use Twitter or another service, up from 19% in December 2008.
The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for a MySpace user is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.
Median Twitter Age is 31 | ||
| % of Internet Users | |
Twitter Age Group | Dec '08 | Sep '09 |
18-24 | 19% | 37% |
25-34 | 20 | 31 |
35-44 | 10 | 19 |
45-54 | 5 | 10 |
55-64 | 4 | 10 |
65+ | 2 | 4 |
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, (Nov-Dec '08, Aug-Sep '09), October 2009 |
The report points out that Harvard Business School researchers analyzed a random sample of 300,000 Twitter accounts and found that "the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets." In addition, says the report, Sysomos analyzed 11.5 million Twitter accounts and found that most people post just once per day (and one in five have never posted).
For now, concludes the report, "... it is clear that a 'social segment' of internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status-update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.
For more about the study from Pew Research, please visit here.
Very incredible study. Especially the last paragraph. Kind of shows the over hype about this technology because of the bias inherent in everyone who is part of the social media money making ecosystem. I myself have found that 90% of tweets are pretty worthless. While I might like seeing an update from a friend over frivolity when it comes from a non-friend account it is just spam. Zappo's which is touted as a social media example of success with over 1.5 million followers has not had a Zappo's informative tweet in over 2 weeks. Every tweet is a mundane update from the CEO such as 'waiting at airport security again'. And while Facebook has 300 million accounts they only had 92 million unique visitors in August. Very impressive numbers but only 1/3 of the hype since 300 million is always used incessantly. Makes you think the Twitter and Facebook founders and executives might want to cash out while the froth is still hot on their websites.
Howie,
I find the very first number to be incredible. Does anyone actually believe 1 in 5 adults online are using Twitter? If this number is wrong (and it is) then all other numbers after it must also be wrong.
I cannot belive someone actually published these numbers. Sham on Pew.
People have said that this study indicates that 19% of online adults use Twitter.
But the question asks if they use "Twitter or another status update service." Since both Facebook and MySpace provide status updates, I would assume the respondents are more likely to be talking about using those services than Twitter.
I find that comments about how Twitter is used by the masses ignores how Twitter is used by the professionals. Social Media is a faster, and some might argue more powerful, SEO tool than traditional SEO. The technology of Twitter is what is important, not the content found in any random sampling of the Twitter stream. Links are indexed by search engines almost immediately and they last forever and they get very fast response. Good content attracts large traffic numbers if posted to Twitter by a dependable source who has built a significant following.
Don't be fooled by looking only at the surface. Twitter search, now lists, and some of the associated tools such as foursquare are changing the way money is made on the Web, customers are served, dialogs with prospects are initiated, and audiences are assembled. Twitter has powerful Google juice and it is up to the wise to tap into it.