6% of Americans use Twitter + Creative Twitter Uses

Tweets soar among young adults, minorities & urbanities

Eight percent of adult Internet users in the U.S. – about 14 million people — now use Twitter, according to Pew Research Center’s survey. That represents around 6% of the country’s overall population, given that 74% of Americans use the web.

Worldwide, Twitter is reported to have 200 million users. This year alone, more than 100 million users are believed to have signed up for the service.

About 2% of Internet users Tweet daily. The rest go to the site infrequently or not at all. The people who use Twitter the most are young adults from 18 to 29 years old, African Americans, Latinos, and people living in cities.

Active user groups include:

• Young adults – Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than 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.

What are we Tweeting about?

• 72% post personal life updates (19% daily)
• 62% share work life, activities or interests (12% daily)
• 55% share news story links (12% daily)
• 54% make humorous or philosophical observations about day-to-day life (16% daily)
• 53% Re-Tweet content posted by others (18% daily)
• 40% share photos (12% daily)
• 28% share videos (8% daily)
• 24% Tweet their location (7% daily)

In a separate study, Sysomos found that 71% of tweets are ignored. The firm found that less than 30% of tweets spark a reply and 19% are retweeted.

Interesting Twitter Uses:

All of this got us thinking…what are the most creative ways people are using Twitter today. Some of the highlights include:

• In Seattle, police use Twitter to help find stolen cars
• Students at Olin College use Twitter to check on the availability of washing machines at the campus Laundromat.
• Some churches Tweet their Sunday services
• Twitter is a widely used tool among analysts who study the conversations to understand sentiments of consumers, trending topics, etc.