Twitter users love their Twitter accounts, so much in fact that on average 80% of all Twitter users will post at least one Tweet or ReTweet to their account daily.
The 80% level comes from a PEW report that also finds that Twitter users typically fall into one of three categories; young adults, minorities and urbanites.
According to the Pew Report the three major Twitter groups are broken down as follows
- 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.
The Pew study also found that 71 percent of Tweets are ignored, while most Tweets sent on the site aren’t even original, instead they are simply retweets or cut and paste copies of other peoples Tweets.
Breaking down the study it appears Twitter is used mostly for sharing links to websites, sharing other peoples thoughts already posted on Twitter accounts and stalking Justin Bieber (I reported in September that Bieber conversations constitute 3% of all Twitter conversations).
That’s not to say Twitter isn’t used quite often by some users for original micro-blogging, just that a majority of users prefer to engage with previously created content, sharing that content with their own followers. The study doesn’t state whether Spam accounts were ignored, considering the number of retweets and copied messages those SPAM accounts provide, numbers could be skewed.
How do you use Twitter in your everyday life? Do you find yourself retweeting more than you Tweet? Or perhaps you click on Tweetmeme and other Twitter buttons to share websites?