Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from MarketingCharts, a Watershed Publishing publication providing up-to-the-minute data and research to marketers.
More than nine in 10 U.S. Millennials (aged 18-34) use Facebook, while fewer than four in 10 use Twitter, according to results from a recently released survey conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The survey found Facebook use driven primarily by a desire to keep current with friends' lives and Twitter use more to see what's "trending."
Asked which, if any, of several options are the main reasons they use Facebook, 69 percent (75 percent of Facebook users) agreed it is to see what's happening in their friends' lives and what they're talking about. Next on the list, 53 percent of respondents overall (58 percent of users) reported that a main reason for using Facebook is to find things that entertain them such as funny lists, articles or videos.
By comparison, significantly fewer (31 percent of respondents; 34 percent of users) said a reason for using Facebook is to see what's "trending" and what people are talking about on social media.
Conversely, some 16 percent of Millennials surveyed said seeing what's trending is a main reason for using Twitter, slightly ahead of the 15 percent who said they mainly use Twitter to find things that entertain them.
Of note, Twitter users were more likely to say they compose their own posts about news-related items than share news content seen on other websites. The opposite was true for Facebook users. In each case, though, Facebook users appeared more engaged in these activities than Twitter users, an interesting result given Twitter's reputation as a real-time news source.
Other findings:
- Roughly three-quarters of Millennials' news and information comes from online rather than offline sources.
- Respondents were more likely to say they "mostly bump into news and information" (60 percent) than actively seeking it out (39 percent).
- Facebook ranks as Millennials' most frequent source of news for a variety of topics, including: celebrities or pop culture; the arts and culture; sports; music, TV and movies; local restaurants or entertainment; style, beauty and fashion; and food and cooking. It falls a close second to search engines in terms of health and fitness news and information.