Twitter is the social networking site of the moment. In one year the site has grown from less than 5 million unique users to nearly 25 million. It seems everyone is using it, or at least everyone is talking about using it. Politicians, stay at home moms, Fortune 500 companies, grassroots organizations, celebrities, athletes – it feels like who is not using Twitter might be an easier question. However, who is using the service still remains the $64 million question (would we even bother to ask for $64,000 these days).

A Pew Internet Study released earlier this year offered some insight. The study indicates the Twitter audience is 53 percent female and 47 percent male. The leading age group are 18-34 year olds with 47 percent of the audience, followed by 35-49 year olds at 31 percent. The Twitter audience has primarily attended college, when you combine with those who have attended graduate school it totals 53 percent, versus 37 percent with no college background.

It appears Twitter is the great equalizer as it relates to income level, with 49 percent of the audience earning up to $60K and 51 percent earning more. This includes an estimated 27 percent who earn over $100K. The Pew study also found 76 percent of the audience tweet via wireless devices, 35 percent live in urban areas with only 9 percent living in rural communities.

A few other interesting stats from the Pew study:
• median age of a twitter user is 31
• median age of a myspace user is 27
• media age of a facebook user is 26
• media age of a linkedin user is 40

Last month eMarketer reported nearly 42 percent of Twitter users enjoy keeping their friends informed on every activity or thought they have each day. Women overwhelming chat with their friends at 73.6 percent. While many employees are telling their employers they are using it for wonderful work r elated reasons – nada – less than 13 percent or men or women admitted they are tweeting about work.

In the coming months, it remains to be seen how companies will harness the power of20Twitter, but these studies are helping to point them in the right direction.

Resources:

1. Article that provides an overview:
   http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007193
2. A chart showing the growth of twitter unique users to 20 million