Twitter’s Huge! Or is it?

If you had to guess, what percent of American internet users would you say uses Twitter? 30%? 15%? 10%?

According to the latest report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, the answer is 8%. Eight! How can that be? Twitter is one of the most popular social media services. Famous people Tweet every day. Twitter is used to help raise money during a disaster and detectives in England are being trained to use the service to help track criminals. So how can it be that only 8% of internet users are hanging with the bird?

In September’s Pew Report, it was noted that 24% of internet users used Twitter or “another service to share updates.” This time around, the researches asked a more specific question, namely, “Do you use Twitter?” Can’t get more specific than that.

Since 74% of Americans are internet users, that means only 6% of the entire adult population of the US is Tweeting.

Not surprisingly, the report shows that people aged 18-29 are more likely to be Twitter users, as are African-Americans and Latinos. Urban dwellers are twice as likely to use Twitter than their country cousins and that makes perfect sense, too.

To make matters even odder, Pew asked the Twitter uses how often they check their Tweets. 24% said several times a day while 21% said infrequently to never.

Of those that are posting, 72% said they post personal updates, 62% post work updates and more than 50% share news and retweet. Tweeting locations and sharing videos landed in the lowest spots on the chart.

If these numbers are true, does that change your opinion about the usefulness of Twitter as a marketing tool? Or are you convinced that it’s the helping your business succeed?