Much has been written about the Twitter phenom.  Almost to where you go….dude enough already, aaargh.  However….one of the missing components that has not had a ton of type hype is “who” is on Twitter.  It may SHOCK you.

 Let’s take a peek at some recent demographic data from Quantcast. This is from January 2009.

Age of Twitter Users

 52% of Twitter user are 35 or older (including 50+).

WOW! Is this a change from what the talking heads of traditional media would have us believe? So this would indicate that Twitter is a significant opportunity for communication with Gen X, Y, and Baby Boomers.

Over ½ of the folks using Twitter are Female with 47% being Male 

Let’s look at the rest of the data:

This graph shows 74% don’t have kids.
Another shocker for me. I would like to see some clarification on this point.  Are they saying no kids, or no kids presently living at home?  Surely the latter.

If, in fact, 74% have no children currently as dependents this would indicate a presence of a bit more discretionary resources (time and money) on their hands. Prime candidates for participation in social media and becoming part of your Tribe.

Check this out! 51% make $6oK or more per year and 27% are over 100K
Anything at all there look like a match for your target market?

Just so we are clear on the educational portion…63% went to college
and get this…17% of Twitter users went to Graduate School

Hmmm ok, as a recap, Twitter users rank high in income compared to the average, are well educated, almost equally male and female, and spread across the age ranks from 18 to 51 with more than half being over 35.

The real question is not whether you should be using Twitter as an additional marketing tool, but HOW should you use Twitter as a marketing tool.

til next time,

Live-Love-Laugh