Who’s Using Twitter in the U.S.? Some New Demographics [Charts]

A new Edison Research report draws many interesting conclusions about U.S. Twitter users. The report summarizes the most recent data from a three-year tracking study conducted by Edison and Arbitron. The findings will help you better understand Twitter usage and assist in your social marketing efforts.

“Twitter Usage In America: 2010” pulled data from a national telephone survey of almost 2,000 Americans that was conducted in February. The data was laid over similar studies from 2008 and 2009, resulting in a comprehensive representation of Twitter-related use statistics. You can request a copy of the report from Edison at their Web site, or check out all the best charts below.

Takeaways:

While Facebook is the dominate social platform in terms of usage, Twitter is still growing rapidly and driving consumer awareness.
Twitter users are actively discussing products and services. It’s important to monitor conversations about your business and provide compelling content for users to discuss.
Despite the fact that Twitter is becoming popular, it’s still far behind Facebook — so an effective social media marketing strategy should include …

Takeaways:

While Facebook is the dominate social platform in terms of usage, Twitter is still growing rapidly and driving consumer awareness.
Twitter users are actively discussing products and services. It’s important to monitor conversations about your business and provide compelling content for users to discuss.
Despite the fact that Twitter is becoming popular, it’s still far behind Facebook — so an effective social media marketing strategy should include multiple platforms to maximize results.
Marketing on the social Web is becoming about multiple screens. Users are engaging on social networks on different types of devices including smart phones, laptops, and tablets. It’s important to make sure that your online presence is optimized to take advantage of different form factors.
As SMS use grows, marketers need to plan ways to leverage SMS as a valuable part of the marketing mix.

Among the Findings:

Facebook has a commanding lead over Twitter in usage in the United States — but when it comes to social awareness, the two social platforms are roughly equal:

Edison determined that while 87% of Americans are aware of the microblogging site, only 7% actually use it. As a comparison, Facebook’s awareness rate is at 88%, with usage of 41%.

This dovetails with a recent Citibank report that determined the vast majority of small business owners don’t use social media at all:

Other interesting findings from the Edison report on Twitter

Users are actively discussing products and services:

They’re engaging on social networks from different locations an on different types of devices:

They love text messaging:

And they seem to be amenable to advertising:

In terms of ethnicity, 24% of users are African Americans:

You can download the report from the Edison Research Web site — it’s well worth it, since it contains many more useful social media data points for marketers. Here’s Tom Webster, Vice-President for Strategy and Marketing for Edison, unveiling the report in a webinar: