Age, Interests Dictate Social Networks Used.

Social network users overall skew young, but when looking at specific sites, differences emerge between age groups.

In June 2012, Pingdom analyzed DoubleClick data and found that 26% of US social network users were between the ages of 25 and 34, with another 25% between the ages of 35 and 44. Users ages 18 to 24 made up 16% of all US social network users. This study looked at users of a variety of sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, StumbleUpon, deviantART and Goodreads.

Another study, from the Association of Magazine Media (MPA) in April 2012, broke down social network user distribution not only by age, but also by specific social media sites used. The MPA surveyed US magazine readers who used social media and found that younger respondents were more likely to use certain sites, particularly those with a photo or video focus. Users ages 18 to 24 were more likely than their 25- to 34-year-old counterparts to use YouTube (73% compared to 57%), Twitter (45% to 38%), Instagram (17% to 10%) and Tumblr (15% to 7%). Older respondents were more likely to use LinkedIn, unsurprisingly, while the number of users on Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest was about even between the groups.

For those social media users who also consider themselves avid magazine readers, they often combine the two interests by following magazines on social sites. Twitter and Pinterest were more popular for following magazines, according to the data from the MPA, with 56% of respondents saying both that they followed a magazine on Twitter and followed or repinned content from a magazine on Pinterest. Given the visual nature of Pinterest and the news focus of Twitter, magazines often perform very well on these sites.

Additionally, 51% of respondents said they retweeted an article from a magazine’s Twitter feed, 49% used a magazine-created hashtag to discuss an article, and 49% also followed an individual magazine editor or columnist on Twitter. Facebook was slightly less popular for connecting with magazines and their content, but readers were still active there as well.

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