April 8th, 2009
Twitter numbers on the rise, thanks to your parents?
Some interesting Twitter stats have been released with numbers that may surprise you. We all know that the world is gaga over the micro-blogging site, but what we didn’t know is that its popularity is not being led by the trendy tweens and college kids of the world, but by the 45- to 54-year-olds. In other words, your parents could be the driving force behind Twitter’s traffic.
According to a comScore blog post, people in the 45- to 54-year-old age range are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter. People ages 25 to 34 years old are next, and are 30 percent more likely.
These numbers, of course, can be skewed by the number of businesses on Twitter, so don’t go making any grand conclusions just yet.
ComScore reported that Twitter reached 10 million users worldwide in February — an increase of 700 percent from February 2008. Four million of the new users are from the U.S., which is a 1,000 percent increase from last year.
ComScore discovered that the traditional early adopters to social media, 18- to 24-year-olds, are actually 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter.
Could it be because they’re trying to rebel against the norm? If your mom calls you up during your first week at college and tells you she just joined Twitter, and that you should too, would that make you less likely to join?
“…with those age 25 and older representing a much bigger segment of the population than the under 25 crowd, it might help explain why Twitter has expanded its reach so broadly so quickly over the past few months,” said Sarah Radwanick in the comScore post.
According to comScore, March’s numbers should be released sometime this week, so stay tuned.
Jennifer R. Bergen is a journalist and blogger living in New York City. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
Subscribe to The ToyBox via Email alerts or RSS.
