August 19, 2009
Tweeting ain’t for Teens
In direct contrast to every other social media explosion, it is adults rather than teenagers that are fueling the growth of Twitter.
According to research from Nielsen NetRatings out last week, adults use Twitter twice as much as teenagers do. Just 16% of Twitter users are under 24; a measly 6.6% of teens have a Twitter account.
When you take into account the fact that the under 25s make up a quarter of the active Internet audience, this means Twitter under-indexes in the youth market by as much as 36%.
So whilst Twitter use has exploded in the last 6 months – now being used by around 10% of all Internet users – this growth is despite low adoption rates by younger people.
It seems like its always young people who adopt new a Internet phenomenon, to be followed by the older generation: Facebook followed exactly this model. Some have questioned what it is about Twitter that hasn’t captured young people’s imagination.
“Does it really matter if the kids don’t get it? The fact remains that Twitter has grown to be a major online presence and is being driven forward by significant buzz” said David Martin, VP for primary research at Neilsen.
Such is the level of buzz – as measured by the frequency of mentions on blogs, forums and message boards – that Twitter’s profile is now as great as that of Facebook, despite being just a quarter of the size. This buzz is refueled with every general news ‘event’ such as the Iran election. As to whether this buzz will translate too long term users, only time will tell.
Martin said: “All it takes is one celebrity or major news story to rekindle the Twitter buzz machine, but do these one-off shifts create one-time curiosity seekers or lead to more permanent users? That’s the unanswered question.”
We’ve certainly picked up here that many Twitter users leave after less than a month.
Maybe all its going to take is a major news story that affects younger people for the Twitter to take hold amoungst the young. Or more likely, faster adoption will be driven by Twitter use by celebrities with a young fan base. It certainly seems like the high profile Twitter users come from a more mature audience – such as Al Gore, Barack Obama, Stephen Fry.
Is Twitter just for older people? If you’re a teenager, have you tried Tweeting? Leave us a comment below.
Apparently this data doesn’t take into account all the independent apps that are used in addition to directly tweeting.
That’s not to detract from the statistic - I’m sure that as more and more businesses realise the value of twitter as a ‘feed’ the demographic will get more and more business orientated.
Just as long as we’re not all shouting and no-one’s listening!
Have you seen the list for the top 100 Twitterers (based on numbers following)? I hardly know any of them. Ms Spears name I DID recognise, though no mention of the courgette…..
AX
Comment by Alison Cross — August 19, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
Nope didn’t see that ‘top 100′ Twitterers - can you show us a link to that?
Please stop mentioning vegetables!
Ken
Comment by admin — August 20, 2009 @ 11:27 am
http://twitterholic.com/
It’s not a twitter app, but since you don’t need to register your twitter details to have a nosy, it doesn’t really matter.
It’s even got a little space where you type in your own twitter account name and see how you rank….sadly, I’m so far down the rankings that I’ve given up waiting for it to find me LOL!
Highest ranking UK based user is………………not Stephen Fry……….but……………Coldplay!
AX
Comment by Alison Cross — August 20, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
ive joined twitter nd am 14!
truth is tis really borin! all u get is the celebs talkin bout there hard workin days , borin! sumbody better show em how 2 start a convo.
so i left twitter cus there ain’t much 2 do on there!
plus no imagination at all!
Comment by addilynn — August 30, 2009 @ 10:12 pm