For all the talk about social media use and growth over the last several years, it's always good to get a look at the numbers to see how far it's come. A recent report by Harris Interactive has some interesting stats about the adoption of social networking sites Facebook and MySpace as well as the number of Americans who are on Twitter.
I took the stats (detailed below) and put them on Seth Godin's product adoption lifecycle. As you can see from the image, Facebook is about to cross over the hump while Twitter is just past the innovator phase and into the early adopters phase. With all the hype over Twitter in mass media, it will be interesting to see if Twitter moves into the orange section more quickly than other technologies.
Here are the numbers. According to the study:
- 49% of all Americans over the age of 18 are on Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace
Specifically for Facebook and MySpace use:
- 74% of 18-34 year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
- 47% of 35-44 year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
- 41% of 45-54 year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
- 24% of 55+ year olds are on Facebook and/or MySpace
As for Twitter...
- 8% of 18-34 year olds use Twitter
- 7% of 35-44 year olds use Twitter
- 4% of 45-54 year olds use Twitter
- 1% of 55+ year olds use Twitter