Pew: 11% of Americans Read or Post Status Updates

The Pew Internet for the American Life Project is out today with a new study (PDF) that reveals that 11% of Americans share or read status updates via a micro-blogging social network service such as Twitter, Facebook or Yammer.

However, the brief is somewhat misleading since it seems to hook the story primarily to Twitter, when in fact it can cover lots of sites. I suspect Facebook looms larger here in the survey than Pew lets on. In addition, I would advise reading it closely since the data can be misinterpreted.

In December 2008 Pew asked more than 2700 consumers if they used "Twitter or another 'microblogging' service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others." According to Pew, 11% responded yes, which is up from 9% in November 2008 and 6% in May of last year. However, read the question closely. Not all of these people are necessarily posting and if they are it can be anywhere, not just Twitter.

Other nuggets from the study...

• Users are young -  Twitter and "similar services" have been most avidly embraced by young adults. Nearly
  one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 and 24 have "ever used Twitter and its ilk," as have
  20% of online adults 25 to 34


• They're not necessarily affluent - Online Americans
  who live in lower-income households are more likely to use Twitter than more affluent
  Americans. Some 17% of internet users in households earning less than $30,000 update their status, compared with 10% of those earning more than $75,000
  annually, Pew notes


• They are mobile - More than three-quarters (76%) of, again what they are characterizing as "Twitter users" use the internet wirelessly – either on a
  laptop with a wireless connection, or via PDA, handheld or cell phone

Regardless of the specific watering hole (eg Facebook, Twitter, etc.) I am less impressed with the 11% figure. What I do find more notable is the growth rate. An increase of two percent from a base of nine percent in just a month is quite impressive. But keep in mind, not everyone maybe posting and the base is wide.

Comments

[Max Kalehoff]

Steve,People who respond to surveys are anomalies -- increasingly. Moreover, how many people who use Twitter (or something like it) are likely to respond to a survey? I can't say for sure, but hunch is likeliness is less versus those who would normally respond to a survey. What to make of it all? I'm not sure.

[Anne Mai Bertelsen]

Steve, thanks for the post. It's important to remember that this study asked the question about status updates. As both a former political pollster and corporate market researcher, I've been thinking a lot about the Pew Internet studies lately. Not only is this stat (re: Twitter) counter-intuitive but so are the demos about social networking sites in general. The study that was released last month shows a growing trend among boomers in adoption of social networking sites but I was surprised to see the race, income and education breaks; it seemed to counter the argument about digital divide.

[david lee king]

That's 11% of ONLINE adults - not all adults. Very different meaning between the two.

[Programmer Helper]

It's important to remember that this study asked the question about status updates. As both a former political pollster and corporate market researcher, I've been thinking a lot about the Pew Internet studies lately. Not only is this stat (re: Twitter) counter-intuitive but so are the demos about social networking sites in general.

[Mike Arauz]

Important detail, Steve:

Back in May 2008, the question said "Twitter or another ‘microblogging’ service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others." 6% answered yes.

Now, in Dec 2008, they dropped microblogging, and asked Have you ever "used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?" 11% answered yes.

[Andrew Wise]

It's interesting that the lower income people are making the updates, I personally don't see the whole point..

[alex awesome]

Wouldn't a far more accurate way of getting this data be to pull stats from prominent microblogging sites and aggregate that data? Surveys are a woefully inadequate method of getting quantitative data. They're far better served to finding out the qualitative data, like, WHY users use micro blogging, or HOW users use micro blogging.

[Chris]

lower income people have more time to post. I mean if you have so much time to post what you are doing on twitter I think you should re evaluate how you are spending your time?