current status
[Current Status]
The number of users on Twitter has grown exponentially, not just since it first began, but even within the last three years. With more celebrities and companies using it, that attracts more people to the site. They want to see what their favorite athlete or celebrity is up to, behind the scenes shots of their favorite show, and they want to see what kind of deals Amazon is promoting without having to go on to the site itself. Twitter is drawing different people to the website and those numbers reflect that. As of January 1, 2014, there were 645.7 million registered users on Twitter with hundreds of thousands signing up each day (“Twitter Statistics,” 2014). According to PewResearch, in 2012, 16% of Internet users are on Twitter (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). As that number is a year old, it has more than likely gone up since then (it did double from 2010 to 2012). It is harder to find out the more specific demographics of the users on Twitter (same for Tumblr as well), but according to PewResearch, more males use Twitter than females with the percentages being 17% and 15% respectively (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). Another interesting current trend with the demographics of Twitter is the race/ethnicity of those who are using it. 26% of Black, non-Hispanic Internet users are on Twitter, followed by Hispanic users at 19%, and White, Non-Hispanic at 14% (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). The largest age group on Twitter is 18-29 year olds at 27% with 30-49 year olds following with 16%. Though the percentage is quite small (2%), there are even those 65 and older using Twitter. While that number may not be considered very high, it does show that people of any age can get into microblogging and it is not just for the “young” people. These numbers show that Twitter can appeal to people of a different race and different age because it can offer something to everybody. People can have their Twitters for different purposes, but that does not make it less appealing for one person than it does another. According to statistics, the best time for engagement on Twitter is during weekdays as oppose to the weekend with there being 14% more engagement on Saturday and Sunday than on other days (Cooper, 2013). Also, tweets posted later in the day have a higher percentage of click-through rates than those posted on the morning, and retweets seem to be higher around 5 p.m. (Cooper, 2013). These trends show that Twitter users are more likely to be on sometime during the day and after they get home from work and/or school, rather than before.
Tumblr has some of the lower percentage of Internet users at being 6% (Brenner & Duggan, 2013), but the number of users seems to be growing daily. As of April 2, 2014, it did have 178.7 million blogs (Tumblr.com). Tumblr has just a small percentage of Internet users on it, but it does bring in the youngest crowd. 13% of 18-29 year olds using the Internet can be found on their blogs on Tumblr (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). Both 6% of men and women are using Tumblr and 8% of Hispanics on the Interned are using Tumblr.
As seen above, the numbers show that microblogs can be used by anybody and there is no set age limit or race for those microblogging. There may be certain people who are more likely to use microblogging platforms (those ages 18-29), but they are not the ones who are exclusively using it. Even though these different microblogging sites may not be the most visited on the Internet, there is a definite usage happening.
[Conclusion and Preview]
Microblogging really came to be a few years after it began and the aforementioned reasons had a big part in that. If more businesses had not started using Twitter, then they would not be bringing different kinds of people to it. Twitter became a way for people to get their news quicker than they could anywhere else and companies began taking their business to blogs in order to reach a different audience than the one they have been getting. Because of these reasons, and more, that is why the numbers have grown on different microblogging sites and will continue to grow. Microblogging has changed quite a bit since it first started, and as technology and people and interests evolve, so will it.
The number of users on Twitter has grown exponentially, not just since it first began, but even within the last three years. With more celebrities and companies using it, that attracts more people to the site. They want to see what their favorite athlete or celebrity is up to, behind the scenes shots of their favorite show, and they want to see what kind of deals Amazon is promoting without having to go on to the site itself. Twitter is drawing different people to the website and those numbers reflect that. As of January 1, 2014, there were 645.7 million registered users on Twitter with hundreds of thousands signing up each day (“Twitter Statistics,” 2014). According to PewResearch, in 2012, 16% of Internet users are on Twitter (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). As that number is a year old, it has more than likely gone up since then (it did double from 2010 to 2012). It is harder to find out the more specific demographics of the users on Twitter (same for Tumblr as well), but according to PewResearch, more males use Twitter than females with the percentages being 17% and 15% respectively (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). Another interesting current trend with the demographics of Twitter is the race/ethnicity of those who are using it. 26% of Black, non-Hispanic Internet users are on Twitter, followed by Hispanic users at 19%, and White, Non-Hispanic at 14% (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). The largest age group on Twitter is 18-29 year olds at 27% with 30-49 year olds following with 16%. Though the percentage is quite small (2%), there are even those 65 and older using Twitter. While that number may not be considered very high, it does show that people of any age can get into microblogging and it is not just for the “young” people. These numbers show that Twitter can appeal to people of a different race and different age because it can offer something to everybody. People can have their Twitters for different purposes, but that does not make it less appealing for one person than it does another. According to statistics, the best time for engagement on Twitter is during weekdays as oppose to the weekend with there being 14% more engagement on Saturday and Sunday than on other days (Cooper, 2013). Also, tweets posted later in the day have a higher percentage of click-through rates than those posted on the morning, and retweets seem to be higher around 5 p.m. (Cooper, 2013). These trends show that Twitter users are more likely to be on sometime during the day and after they get home from work and/or school, rather than before.
Tumblr has some of the lower percentage of Internet users at being 6% (Brenner & Duggan, 2013), but the number of users seems to be growing daily. As of April 2, 2014, it did have 178.7 million blogs (Tumblr.com). Tumblr has just a small percentage of Internet users on it, but it does bring in the youngest crowd. 13% of 18-29 year olds using the Internet can be found on their blogs on Tumblr (Brenner & Duggan, 2013). Both 6% of men and women are using Tumblr and 8% of Hispanics on the Interned are using Tumblr.
As seen above, the numbers show that microblogs can be used by anybody and there is no set age limit or race for those microblogging. There may be certain people who are more likely to use microblogging platforms (those ages 18-29), but they are not the ones who are exclusively using it. Even though these different microblogging sites may not be the most visited on the Internet, there is a definite usage happening.
[Conclusion and Preview]
Microblogging really came to be a few years after it began and the aforementioned reasons had a big part in that. If more businesses had not started using Twitter, then they would not be bringing different kinds of people to it. Twitter became a way for people to get their news quicker than they could anywhere else and companies began taking their business to blogs in order to reach a different audience than the one they have been getting. Because of these reasons, and more, that is why the numbers have grown on different microblogging sites and will continue to grow. Microblogging has changed quite a bit since it first started, and as technology and people and interests evolve, so will it.