Many Teens Find Twitter Lame
Geoff Cook has a guest post at TechCrunch analyzing why teens don’t use Twitter. The first observation from a survey his company, myYearbook, ran shows the premise that teens avoid the microblogging tool is misguided:
As recently as last week even, the New York Times cited the fact that only 11% of Twitter is teen as evidence of Twitter’s unpopularity to that group.
The implication is that 11% is a small number, but if we look deeper, it turns out that Twitter has a higher concentration of teens than Facebook. You can see in the chart below that Facebook is only 9% teen, so Twitter is actually more teen than Facebook, which rightly has never been perceived as having a “teen problem.” Facebook has so many users that teens just can’t be that large a percentage of the service, by definition.
Cook then looks into why many teens avoid Twitter. The answer is they don’t see it as helping them do something they can’t already do on Facebook and MySpace:
* Teens already update their status religiously on other sites like Facebook, MySpace, and myYearbook.
* Teens use MySpace to keep up with musicians and celebrities, which MySpace differentiates on.
* As a group, teens are not major consumers of news from any outlet, making “staying current” a poor driver of mainstream adoption — though of course there are exceptions.
* Teens use both MySpace and Facebook to keep up with friends they know.
In short, Twitter doesn’t add value for many teens. The ones that do use Twitter follow celebrities and news junkies. It’s not surprising many teens conclude Twitter is “lame.”
What does this survey mean for eCampaigns trying to reach young people? If we extrapolate from teens to the older 18-25 year old demographic–yes, I’m taking a risk here–it means Twitter isn’t the tool of choice to communicate with this age group. You need to rely on other tools like Facebook, MySpace, and mobile phone text messaging. MySpace, in particular, is often given short shrift (I’m guilty since it’s a mess of a social networking site), but it shouldn’t be ignored when trying to reach young people. There’s the possibility as teens get older they’ll be more inclined towards the minimalism and simplicity of Twitter. But don’t expect to jump on Twitter and have teens and young adults follow you. Online communicators need to study the behavior of those they’re trying to talk to. Go where they are, and use they tools they’re already using.
“Why Don’t Teens Tweet? We Asked Over 10,000 of Them” [via TechMeme]
Twitter/Facebook/Myspace = passing fad, to be mostly relegated to followers who have a need to glom on to some celeb, who (I believe) actually think the celeb is communicating personally to them, and who weirdly believe everyone outside their immediate family is actually interested in their vacation photos and that they are doing laundry RIGHT NOW.
The problem I see with Twitter is that it is, basically, junk mail. Spam in 140 chars. It sounds great at first, but it’s like that scene in “A Christmas Story”, where Ralphie discovers the magic decoder ring he has longed for is just a tool for dispensing “a crummy commercial(s)”.
You say, “… here’s the possibility as teens get older they’ll be more inclined towards the minimalism and simplicity of Twitter.”
I’d say just the opposite. As you age you get a little more skeptical (cynical, too, I suppose) and you begin to think more deeply about things. You require more than just 140char commercials for decision making and have far less time to squander reading inane tweets. Simplicity is good in the mechanical world, but not in the philosophical.
A far a teens are concerned, usually they are made up of closed groups… “cliques”, iow. And you are right about texting… that’s all they really need. (well, not “need”, as in food and oxygen, but you understand my meaning.). Plus they have live chat available.
All that said, the various social sites can be used for positive outcomes, particularly for professional networking and for important breaking news (emphasis on “important”).