Perhaps not all that surprising. I don’t think Twitter has ever been something that the average person understands. Its inclusion on television and other media has certainly raised awareness, but that hasn’t necessarily translated into real engagement. A 2009 study found that 71% of tweets are ignored, and I don’t think that has really changed. I’ll tweet this post, for example, and it will most likely end up with an amazingly small number of favorites or retweets. Step outside of the tech bubble that we all live in, talk to the average internet user who doesn’t live in places like Silicon Valley, and you will often hear; “I don’t know what I would say” or “Why would I use Twitter?”.
- Only 22% of teens use Twitter, compared to 61% on Tumblr and 55% on Facebook (source), although more teens actually claim to prefer Twitter over Facebook (source).
- I’m sure this preference has shifted away even more to emerging services like WhatsApp (with over 320 million daily active users).
- The median teen has 300 Facebook friends, but only 79 followers on Twitter (source)
- 40% of registered Twitter users have never sent a single tweet (source)
You will find more statistics at Statista