New: Report Findings from Pew Internet: 8% of Online Amercians Use Twitter On A Daily Basis
Update: Nick Saint from Business Insider on Discrepancies In Total User Numbers Between Pew Internet and Twitter's Actual Numbers
Worth a read (it's brief). Regardless of which numbers are accurate we learned this interesting piece of information.
The problem is that when Twitter talks about how many users it has, it uses the total number of accounts it has signed up. That means everyone who tried the service and quit, everyone who has signed up for more than one account, and every account run by a bot is included in the total.
Now, to the Pew Report:
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released their first study looking at who is using Twitter along with what and how often are these users tweeting. The report was written by Aaron Smith and Lee Rainie
Eight percent of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users.
Inside the Numbers
Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than 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
Twitter Users by Demographic Group
+ Women 10%; Men 7%
+ Internet Users: Age 18-29 14%; (No Other Demo Higher Than 7%)
+ Race Ethnicity: Hispanic 18%; Black (Non-Hispanic) 13%; White (Non-Hispanic) 5%
+ Household Income: Less Than $30K and $50K-$74,999 10% and $30K-$49,999 and $75K+ 6%
+ Educational Level: Less Than High School, n/a; High School Diploma 5%; Some College 9%; College Plus 9%
+ Geography: Urban 11%; Suburban 8%; Rural 5%
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
What and How Often Are Users Tweeting
+ 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. 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.
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