Twitter is a popular TV promotion and newsgathering tool, but who’s posting and reading all those tweets? Pew Internet published a study that breaks it down by demographic, as well as sheds some light on how people are using Twitter.
For starters, 8% of online Americans tweet, with a 18 to 29 year-olds as the dominate age group. Twitter users skew more urban and have a greater representation in minority groups. Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.
Just over half, 55%, say they share news links with their friends, and 28% share video links. 53% say they retweet. And interestingly, 24% say they share their location on Twitter, but only 7% do it daily. Just under half of all Twitter users say they don’t check their tweets very often — less than once a week, which mean you can cut your Twitter followers in half to better estimate your initial reach.
Lots more good stuff in the Pew study here. It may not be a mass reach vehicle yet, but Twitter’s value on the promotional front is jump-starting viral trends, which can create a marketing ripple effect that extends beyond 8% of Americans.
