No bullshit social publishing news and opinions. Follow Brandon.
Nielsen came out with a report showing that (American) teens are not using Twitter. This is way better than the crap Morgan Stanley report and the idiotic Tech Crunch post that followed. But, you’re missing the point if you focus on Nielsen’s (fuzzy) numbers.
Nielsen’s Fuzzy Math
1. Nielsen claims teens don’t use Tweetdeck and uses Quantcast’s audience numbers for Tweetdeck to prove that claim. The thing is Quantcast is not always accurate, and even if the numbers are true, what about folks who access Twitter through Tweetie? What about Tweed? Seesmic? Tweetdeck is not the only Twitter app out there.
And do we really need to say more than, “SITE NOT QUANTIFIED. DATA IS ESTIMATED.”
2. Nielsen only measured data from Twitter.com, but most people (based on my anecdotal evidence of interacting with a few hundred thousand Twitter followers) don’t access Twitter through their web browser.
3. The sample size for Nielsen was 250,000. I alone have almost a million people following me. There are nearly 30 Million people using Twitter worldwide. The sample size is large, but how did they gather it? Whom did they speak to?
Your Missed Opportunity
Are most (American) teens avoiding Twitter? It looks that way, but what about the ones who are? What do we know about them?
How many of them are there?
What do they use to access Twitter?
What products are they interested in?
It’s easy to say, “Teens don’t use Twitter” and go on looking for the demographic that does. It’s another thing to spot the microtrend and discover a new, potentially powerful audience.
