April 8, 2009

At first sight these may seem surprising stats, but they can be explained quite easily I think. Most of the age groups are represented averagely. In other words there are the same proportion of people in the over 55 age groups using Twitter as there are in the general population. That's true also for 35-44s.

The younger groups are using Twitter less. But they had already mastered status updates and quick communications using Facebook and Twitter. There is less need for them to use Twitter.

Equally, much of the online "noise" about Twitter has been about how it can help your business. Guess which age group has more people working from home or running their own business? That's right, the 45-54s. Hence their seemingly exaggerated use of Twitter.

Has it really helped your business? Other than businesses that based their model on a twitter app?

comScore may not be tracking mobile phone users. It's more likely that older users are using Twitter on the desktop and younger users are using Twitter on the go.

I became aware of these facts already and supposed that Twitter in part is used for business at my blog. This has been the purpose of its origine, which is still mentioned at the Twitter blog. And indeed, another survey had confirmed that Twitter is used for business purposes by about 50 percent of its users.

But today the purposes may differ from the original intention, which has been to be aware of team activities. Today the usage is much more diversified. Up to date news is the best example, where a lot of breaking news came up first at Twitter. I would decribe it as a knowledge and productivity tool, which is useful to the masses like a virtual answering machine.

It may also be that the 45-54's are venturing into social networking/marketing via Twitter because the entry barriers are low. At least this is what we're seeing among our industrial B2B clients.

Maintaining a blog and developing new content for a web site is a huge commitment, particularly for companies that lack dedicated marketing resources, internal or outsourced. Which is most of the marketplace, frankly. Twitter, on the other hand, is a burst of perspectives about whatever is top of mind. The link to business promotion is easier to grasp and sustain. Just 20 minutes a day can do wonders. Twitter is to formal Web content as the street vendor hawking his wares is to the corporate sales presentation. The value prop is still there, it's just very, very concise.

Katherine Ventres Canipelli
marketingfolio, inc.

Follow me on Twitter @kvcanipelli
Engage in the debate on The Industrious Marketer ( www.marketingfolio.com/the-industrious-marketer )

This data is likely specific to Twitter.com users, which is only a subset of the Twitter userbase.

To my knowledge, comScore has no way of tracking applications (TweetDeck, Twirhl, etc.).

I'm also confused whether the topmost graph is showing Twitter growth, or overall use?

In any case, it is *great* to see such an even demographic spread, but I'd be careful how this information is used.

Wow! that's really interesting!...what do you think is the MAIN REASON for its exponential growth?

Just featured your analysis in our post regarding Thought Leaders on Twitter.

I have just added a Reference List to my economics blog with economic data series, history, bibliographies etc. for students & researchers.