Study: Young adults haven't warmed up to Twitter
While 99 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have profiles on social networks, only 22 percent use Twitter, according to a new survey from Pace University and the Participatory Media Network.
This is consistent with what some observers have said about Twitter's recent push from early-adopter territory into the mainstream: that it's catching on with a slightly older demographic than the teenagers and college students who formed Facebook's initial core.
But of those young people using Twitter, the survey found that 85 percent of them follow friends, 54 percent follow celebrities, 29 percent follow family members, and 29 percent follow companies--not stellar news for the brands and marketers that have flocked to Twitter as the latest "conversational" destination.
Still, the survey organizers put a positive spin on it.
"Twitter dominates the news, but clearly we're only touching the surface of its potential as a marketing vehicle," Participatory Media Network co-founder and chairman Michael Della Penna said in a release. "This is a classic 'glass half full' scenario for Twitter because it's clear that Gen Y has an appetite for social networking, but still hasn't fully embraced micro-blogging. There is a tremendous opportunity now for marketers to develop strategies to get this important group active on Twitter too."
Here's what is everywhere: social-network developer applications. Eighty-nine percent of those surveyed by Pace and the Participatory Media Network say they have installed apps on their social-network profiles.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
Someone please start a backlash, ASAP.
http://www.twitterbacklash.com
The 'I don't care what people are doing' argument is a strange one. If you don't care. Don't look. There are people who care about what other people are doing.
The fact that people think that's all Twitter is, an update of what people had for breakfast just shows how little you've looked into the subject. The beauty of Twitter is that it can be used in so many ways for so many different kinds of people.
1. If you're a web designer, entrepreneur or in any self employed/self promotional activity, it is great for making contacts, making deals, keeping in contact with clients and forming business relationships.
2. I once couldn't find an answer to a question I had on Google. I had a spot-on answer within 5 minutes on Twitter.
3. As a promotional tool it can be useful. Dell has made over a million from Twitter with it's 'Deals' account. This is beneficial for both parties.
4. As a lead generator, it can be used to search out possible clients, help them out, give them advice, in exchange for an eventual exchange of money for a product or service.
5. Latest news, search is instant. You can get immediate reactions to events and stories, as well as pick up news immediately. Mainly useful for journalists and news junkies.
6. Finding like-minded people for casual communication. Facebook etc is a little heavy when it comes to finding 'friends', it isn't really set up for doing so. If you did find a like-minded stranger, once they become your friend, they have access to almost everything about you (on Facebook). Twitter is great for casual acquaintances. Someone else is new to PHP, discuss, pass on tips etc.
7. Communicating with those in the public eye. Sure it might seem odd to some of you, but people idolise celebrities/people on TV etc. Although response rate often isn't great, it's a lot easier to communicate with these people on Twitter than anywhere else.
I'm sure it's used in a variety of other ways, but that's all I can think of at the moment. A long winded way of saying, don't pigeon-hole Twitter. I'd say it's useful primarily if you fit into any of these categories:
Techie
Self-employed
Public figure
Journalist
Webmaster/Website owner
Blogger
CEO
Egomaniac
I'm a Twitter basher (and Facebook basher, and MySpace basher, and...), but I must commend you on your description of the actually beneficial uses of the service. I hadn't considered those before. You've almost recruited another cult member.
It is entirely possible that I have missed something about Twitter but as best as I can tell it is only really of use to interesting people that already have successful blogs (sort of a replacement for RSS because Twitter is real-time) and companies who want to keep in touch with existing customers (or rather, with customers who want to stay in touch with the company). I do not, for example, see how you can use Twitter as a means of making contact with people since people have to be interested in making contact with you first in order to subscribe to your Twitter feed. Particularly within the context of the article, I don't see why anyone would want to use Twitter if they already used existing social networking sites, such as Facebook, since they essentially do the same thing (although I take your point on the security aspect).
Basically, I can see some use of the service but not really as a replacement of existing services. I tried it about a year or so ago but then didn't understand the point of broadcasting if there wasn't an audience. In the end I came to the conclusion that I was using it as an alternative to RSS (i.e. reading other people's tweets rather than publishing my own) and that I preferred RSS.
"I do not, for example, see how you can use Twitter as a means of making contact with people since people have to be interested in making contact with you first in order to subscribe to your Twitter feed."
- You can send them an @reply, they don't need to be following you.
"I can see some use of the service but not really as a replacement of existing services"
- It's not meant to be.
"I tried it about a year or so ago but then didn't understand the point of broadcasting if there wasn't an audience"
- You have to actively engage with other users to build your audience.
I'm not a particularly huge Twitter fan, I just think people should know the facts.
Absolutely. Contact me when/if you need anything.
That lines up with the same percentage of young adults who have personality disorders. http://sfhelp.org/research/01_20%25wounded.htm
Twitter explained.
What got me to cancel my account several months ago:
1) The thing was, as more people joined the service got terrible. The infamous "fail whale" appeared all the time. I
2) t's just like anything else, once everybody finds out about it it ruins it for everyone. Pretty soon you have retailers and celebrities signing up. I really don't want to follow a company to see what's on sale. I kept getting direct messages that were spam. For example I tweeted that I had just purchased an HD radio and I thought it was terrible. Within 60 minutes the HD Radio association had sent me a friend request and sent me a direct message asking me my opinions about HD Radio.
3) Once these tools get commercialized I get turned off. Seriously, when there are books and marketing classes on "How to make money on Twitter" I had to get out. What was a cool little tool I used once in a while was now a data mine for greedy corporations.
4) The final nail in the coffin was when Minnesota Public radio found out about twitter. I had been following them as they sent one or two updates a day related to special events or major stories. They started tweeting several times an HOUR. They just didn't get it. Twitter is not a chat room. They continously spammed my email box full on their updates. Everything from news, to who was currently on the air, to stories they had posted on their website. They didn't use hashtags or create separate id's to allow me to filter stuff out.
In summary, Twitter for me ended up like everything else on the internet. It's great until people find out about it. Myspace was neat until Fox bought it and destroyed it, Facebook was ok when it was limited to college campuses. Twitter was great when it was small. Bringing in the masses and corporations just ruins the utility and community feel.
also, the results of this study are probably skewed. it reminds me of that sprint commercial that says most of the people seeing this don't even know what twitter is (paraphrased).
****** bags like CNN and Aston Kutcher 'tweet'.
oh and speaking of 'twitter'....shouldn't the action verb be 'twit'......or shouldn't the site be called tweeter?
stupid.
Personally I think twitter is the dumbest thing to come around in a long time. The headline should be "New survey shows a whopping 22% of young adults use twitter"
Cody
Twitter is for TWITS! Drink *******, it's better for you!
If this article was about TV subtitles, you wouldn't say, "subtitles are useless because I can just listen to what's being said".
An way google wave seem far superior to me and I am going to look forward to playing around with it in the near future.
http://blurthelines.typepad.com/weblog/2009/05/ambient-awareness.html
http://www.gerardbabitts.com/2009/03/26/does-gen-y-know-something-we-dont/
http://technology-report.com/2009/05/forresters-jeremiah-owyang-twitter-is-way-over-hyped/
http://technology-report.com/2009/05/forresters-jeremiah-owyang-twitter-is-way-over-hyped/
I don't twit, I don't book my face and I don't IM. I am an internet professional and have been running my own online business since 1992. My friends, customers and business associates know how to get a hold of me 24/7 if they need to without the nonsense and spam magnetism.
- by flickrz June 1, 2009 2:48 PM PDT
- Surprised to know that kids haven't picked up twitter habit yet. Usually, they are the early adopters of any kind of new social experiment.
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