We are all of a Twitter

Twice as many 50-64-year-olds than 18-24-year-olds in the UK use Twitter, according to research from Nielsen Online.

Audience figures showed 50-64-year-old users account for 22% of the entire Twitter audience, compared with just 11% of 18-24-year-olds.

The biggest share of the audience is 35-49-year-olds (33%), followed by 50-64-year-olds (22%) and 25-34-year-olds (22%). A year ago the share of 25-34-year-olds using the site was 5% higher.

The figures also revealed the number of users in the under-18s market and over-65s each accounts for 6% of the overall audience.

The age group that grew fastest in unique visits over the past year was 50-64 year-olds, up by 1,926%. arial;">The biggest share of the audience is 35-49-year-olds (33%), followed by 50-64-year-olds (22%) and 25-34-year-olds (22%). A year ago the share of 25-34-year-olds using the site was 5% higher.

The figures also revealed the number of users in the under-18s market and over-65s each accounts for 6% of the overall audience.

The age group that grew fastest in unique visits over the past year was 50-64 year-olds, up by 1,926%.

The Nielsen Online UK figures contrast with US research by ComScore released last week that found the audience on the site had skewed younger as it has grown in the past year.

Ageing Tweeters

Well - after my disparaging remarks about Twitter earlier I now discover that in the US it is the 45-54 year olds who are using it the most. Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic recently authored an interesting blog post about the demographics of Twitter users. What he discovered was that 18-24 year olds, the traditional social media early adopters, are actually 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter. It is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend. More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.

So maybe when I get my next book to the publisher at the end of April I will ask my much younger co-author to teach me how it works. She tweets regularly!

First-time blog - Mike Scally

I liked the irony that after weeks of doubt about involvement with blogging (would it intrude into my happy retirement?) that on the the day I thought 'yes', the To-day programme carried an item 'Is blogging over?'. The suggestion was that blogging is so '2004' that it is now passe! So, here I am arriving when it is all over. The today contributors were urging us all to become 'tweeters' because, they said, blogs have been taken over by professionals promoting their wares, who were producing a 'tsunami of paid bilge' and most blogs were 'average and gutter-bound'. Hearing this I was even more hesitant about getting involved and wondered whether my image with my grandchildren would be best enhanced by my 'tweeting'. This inclination soon passed when one of the contributors (challenged by techno-cynic John Humphreys) claimed she had 500 'friends' that she 'tweeted' with regularly and was able to tell them when her cat was ill and what her plans were each day. She also admitted that she and the other contributor had been sitting together in the same room waiting for their To-day slot and had spent the time 'tweeting' to each other!! I decided it was a generational thing and decided to join the 'oldies' on this blog. So, I am now signed up and hope to become interesting before very long - everything tends to take longer these days!