Who Tweets?

Recently, Aaron Smith, Senior Research Specialist and Lee Rainie, Director of Pew Internet and American Life Project. This was their first project that examined twitter users on Who Tweets? They started off with an overview of Twitter and general information. "Eight percent of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users."

This is the reason why did decided to focus on Twitter specifcally this time, "The message service Twitter launched on July 15, 2006 now claims tens of millions of users worldwide. It is one of the most popular online activities among tech enthusiasts and has become a widely used tool among analysts to study the conversations and interests of users, buzz about news, products or services, and announcements by commercial, non-profit, and government organizations."

Some of the groups who are notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use include:

• Young adults: Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than are 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.
  Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.

Overall, observations related to users' personal or professional lives are the most popular types of updates, while location-based tweets and links to videos are the least commonly mentioned:

-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. About 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

This information is really interesting, I like the way they break down thei nformation, by race as well as by different ways you can use Twitter and share and receive information.

Site:




http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1821/twitter-users-profile-exclusive-examination