Winning the Internet

Who’s using social media? It’s not who you think…

After a great run, the Winning the Internet blog has been retired. However, you can still keep in touch with New Media Mentors here.






imagesJust yesterday the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new study on who’s using social networking sites. Their findings may come as a surprise.

It turns out the number of users and the ages of those users have changed—and pretty radically.

Here are the takeaways:

It’s not just youngsters using social media. According to the study, “Today, 72% of online adults use social networking sites. Those ages 65 and older have roughly tripled their presence on social networking sites in the last four years—from 13% in the spring of 2009 to 43% now.”

Twitter just keeps on growing. “The percentage of internet users who are on Twitter has more than doubled since November 2010, currently standing at 18%.”

Twitter users are growing younger. “Internet users ages 18-29 are the most likely to use Twitter,” Pew reports, “and 30% of them now do so.”

This is great info to keep in mind when designing social media campaigns and projects, starting with clear goals and strategies (of course).

Thanks, as always, to Pew’s research—a great resource for all of us!

 

About Liza Pike

I'm the founder of New Media Mentors, a hands on learning program to help non profits use social media and online organizing tools effectively.






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