Data-driven marketing is not only about staying abreast of tools to enhance the online marketing experience for the brand and the user – it’s also about staying informed on what people are doing on the Internet and where. Which demographics are using social media and which platforms do they favor? This kind of data helps us narrow our targeting to reach the right audience for our clients.

Therefore, it is important to know the current state of Twitter usage. Who is on it the most? On what devices are they accessing the platform? Thanks to the Twitter Usage 2012 research study from Pew Internet, we now have those insights.

Overall, 15% of all adult Internet users use Twitter, 8% of them on a daily basis. However, this number increases when focusing on a young age group: 31% of users 18-24 use the social platform. This number slightly decreases to 26% when we bucket 18-29 year old users. Twitter usage for the age groups of 18-24 and 25-34 has doubled (respectively) since November 2010. Twitter usage decreases by about half for users ages 30-49, but the numbers across all demographics have increased (or stayed constant) from November 2010, when only 8% of adult Internet users utilized the social media platform.

Mobile also plays a huge role in the popularity of Twitter. One in five smartphone owners are Twitter users, 13% of which use the service daily. Only 9% of Internet users (with no smartphone) and only 3% of basic phone owners are on Twitter. Interestingly, Hispanic and African-American mobile phone users are twice as likely to use Twitter on their phones than Caucasians.

This information should be useful when discussing targeting techniques in social media marketing initiatives that include Twitter.

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Image Source: Pew Internet