Adoption of Twitter

I taught a short intro course this week at Montana State University on Social Media.  Preparing for the lecture, I was surprised to learn a few key things in the way the different social media technologies have been adopted to date, namely Facebook and Twitter.

1. Almost 41% of Americans are on Facebook
2. If Facebook were a country, it would be 3rd in population behind India and China (500 million users)
3. Despite 87% of people knowing about Twitter, only 7% use it

Note: Data is from Edison Research – conducted February 2010 – Twitter Usage in America 2010.

While Twitter has enjoyed great buzz this hasn’t necessarily meant a huge wave of adoption. The research does show a startling spike in awareness from 5% in 2008 to 87% in 2010 with people over the age of 12.

A great example of how people can know about your product but not know its value.

Watch the full video here from Edison:

Twitter Usage in America 2010 from Tom Webster on Vimeo.