Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

image credit: WilLiao

Today's New York Times business section features an article on Twitter. Specifically, it discusses how much its growth in popularity is being fueled not by teens - the usual source of exponential growth in new Internet technologies - but by adults, more specifically those over thirty. My colleagues have been pointing this out to me for some time - that teenagers are not tweeting as much as expected.

The article posits that young people are more frequent "texters" and prefer other social networking tools that broadcast messages just to their friends and not everyone in the Tweetosphere. It quotes a teenage girl as claiming that her parents wouldn't approve of her telling her thoughts, etc. in a public forum - the reason being older people preying on youngsters.

The one question that the article doesn't quite answer is why adults are tweeting.

One possible explanation is that there has been such an intense, mass media swirl around Twitter - perhaps even more intense than for Facebook - that "grown ups" just decided to sign up and give it a try.

I do wonder if there's something more to the phenomenon.

Does Twitter provide a means of self-expression and connecting to others that adults feel they have lost over the course of time  - that as they get older, work 70 hours a week, have families and tons of responsibility, that they lose the opportunity to air their thoughts and feelings? They have no one to speak to and no outlet - that no one's listening. Though Facebook is also enjoying a surge in popularity amongst older adults - my mom who's 61 sent me a friend request a few months ago! - it broadcasts messages to a mutually selected group of friends.

It lacks some of the psychological anonymity of Twitter, where one's audience is comprised of three main segments:

1. people you know, but who probably might not pay as much attention to you because of heavy tweet volume and the very ephemeral nature of tweets
2. people you don't know, but who follow you for whatever reason
3. those random people who search the Tweetosophere on particular topics 


Facebook and Twitter are just different. Though Facebook and third-party apps are trying to make it easier to align Facebook and Twitter accounts, relatively few people appear to be using this functionality, and those who have, soon unlink the two updates. Is it because people find the constant stream of updates on Facebook annoying? It could be that users want to broadcast different messages to different audiences, and select the appropriate social medium to do so.
 
Twitter is way noisier; the din is high, so you're less likely to be in the spotlight and people are less likely to know you personally -- or sometimes even professionally. For the over thirty crowd, that might increase their comfort level. It gives you a chance to bounce ideas off people who might hold similar interests, say something outspoken or even simply vent to outside those of your long-standing friendships and family. Your Twitter followers might not necessarily judge you for a belief that your private connections (on Facebook) don't share, if they even catch your Tweet at all. Twitter feeds move so quickly. 

People would be less likely to say something outrageous or overly personal on Facebook (so far as I can tell.) There's more attribution; on Facebook, your status update could remain on your profile indefinitely unless you actively deleted it.

I think there is a great opportunity to do some more research to understand the Twitter phenomenon. It might be worth beginning a longitudinal study that asks the question (among many others): Will teenagers as they age into their 20s and 30s be more prone to use Twitter? Why or why not?

I'm happy to join bandwagons, but I really do like to understand the psychology behind why particular audiences are exhibiting particular behaviors. As one tries to develop a social media strategy, such information and insight can really drive appropriate approaches and solutions. Twitter is not just a box to check; for a brand to effectively leverage the tool, they need to understand the variances and subtleties in how different audiences use it.  

Jonathan D. Cohen