Nielsen recently released a report that concluded “teens don’t tweet.” They found that “Twitter.com’s reach is 6.6 percent for kids, teens and young adults, whereas it is 12.1 percent for those over 25; implying that adults are trying Twitter at nearly double the rate.”
In their review of the report, Mashable asks why teens aren’t tweeting and what this means for Twitter. I would argue that this doesn’t really matter for Twitter. In fact, the slow adoption of Twitter by users under the age of 25 isn’t what I find interesting. What I find interesting is the rapid adoption by users over the age of 25 (and the fact that there are actually Twitter users over the age of 55).
Why was this group so quick to adopt Twitter? I would argue that a large percentage of people in this age group are adopting Twitter much quicker than other age groups because it serves a different purpose than other social networks. It’s a more useful professional networking tool than any other social network. Obviously LinkedIn is useful, but it’s a more traditional networking tool. You can form relationships much faster on Twitter.
So, if Twitter is a more useful professional networking site, I’d argue that it’s rapid growth within the 25-55 age group is fueled, at least in part, by the recession. Don’t get me wrong, Twitter would be doing just fine without the recession. But I think that there are a significant number of people in this age group that have lost their jobs or fear losing their job and they are using Twitter to build their networks. I know a number of people who have joined Twitter to help with their job search.
Obviously this is only speculation on my part, but what do you think? Has the recession played any part in the rapid growth of Twitter?
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