Recently, at a networking event, the subject of Twitter and its usefulness came up. Being a huge proponent of social media as a whole, I immediately listened. I overheard one person say, "Why should I bother using Twitter? 16 year old girls aren't interested in my business."

Of course my initial reaction was laughter. Twitter has its fair share of teenage girls but this assumption was completely incorrect. I noticed it first on an impromptu survey done by TheBusyBrain (Mike Johnson) on his blog. It was a simple survey, just asking his Twitter followers to answer their age based on ten year segments. Mike's survey shows people in their 30's as the largest age group on Twitter, followed by 20s, 40s, 50s and teens taking fifth place.

Of course this survey only had 1500 or so people vote. So after this discussion I did some hunting for more statistically accurate numbers. Check out this post from Hitwise. It says 63% of Tweople are male and 25% of users are between 35 and 44.

I have to admit the accuracy of the smaller survey surprised me, though I'm pleased that Twitter isn't overrun with pubescent girls. The point here is that the people I network with in real life were basing their ideas of social media off of assumptions. Research is your friend. Know your demographic and aim for it. Do your own surveys with your clients, ask them what they use the web for, why they would read your blog, etc.

My Challenge: Survey 30 clients or possible clients of yours, ask them what social media they use. Let me know what kind of results you get!

Image by Smith