Education & Numérique

"Si on devait comparer les 3 réseaux majeurs – actuellement – avec des situations de la vie réelle, on pourrait avoir l’école, le bar, le restau, le vide, … :

- Facebook : la cours d’école, le bar ou le restaurant avec ses amis
- Twitter : la salle de réunion ou le loundge pour ses rendez vous professionnels
- Google+ : le désert, le restaurant vide ou la ville abandonnée
Pourtant, si on se restreint à analyser les fonctionnalités et la finesse de configuration permises de chaque réseau pour entretenir des relations à forte valeur ajoutée, on peut s’apercevoir que Google+ est probablement le plus « puissant » ou pertinent des 3 réseaux sociaux."

La firme Orange via le blog Le Collectif a eu la bonne idée de mettre à disposition des internautes et mobinautes des vidéos courtes didactiques et avec un brin d’humour sur des services en ligne (Twitter, Pinterest, Klout, Foursquare, Google Plus…) et notions de l’Internet (cloud computing…) et du monde connecté (TV connectée, voiture connectée…) d’aujourd’hui afin de mieux les comprendre et les appréhender.

Do you know how old the average Twitter or Facebook user is? Do you know what share of Reddit’s users are women? We could go on and on; when it comes to social network demographics, the questions are endless.

Pingdom shows here the age and gender distribution on 24 of today’s most popular social networks and online communities.

Social media is most definitely not just for the young:

55% of Twitter users are 35 or older. 63% of Pinterest users are 35 or older. 65% of Facebook users are 35 or older. 79% of LinkedIn users are 35 or older.

Some sites have a considerable bias toward younger users:

58% of Reddit users are under 35. 60% of Github users are under 35. 63% of Hi5 users are under 35. 69% of Hacker News users are under 35. 69% of deviantART users are under 35. 83% of Orkut users are under 35.

Average user age per site

Based on the sites in this survey, the estimated age of the average social media user is just under 37 years old. Here are some other observations:

The oldest users. LinkedIn has the oldest user base, with the average user being 44.2 years old. The average Facebook user is 40.5 years old. The average Twitter user is 37.3 years old. The age trend for Facebook and Twitter.  Twitter’s user base is getting younger, while Facebook’s is getting older.

What about gender?

Based on the United States demographics data (from Ad Planner) there is a clear gender imbalance on many of these sites. Some are much more male dominated, and vice versa. However, when you look at all the data together, it becomes clear that women rule social media. More than two thirds of the sites in this survey have more female than male users.

Other observations:

17 out of 24 sites (71%) have more female than male users. The average gender distribution is 48.75% male, 51.25% female. Most male-dominated site? Slashdot (87% males) is the standout, followed by Hacker News (77% males) and Stack Overflow (76% males). In general, the more tech-focused sites in this survey have more male users than female. Most female-dominated site? Pinterest (79% females) is in a league of its own, followed by Goodreads (70% females) and Blogger (66% females). Facebook and Twitter have the same gender distribution: 40% male, 60% female.

As you can see, the only sites in this survey with more male than female users are Quora, Reddit, Orkut, Github, Stack Overflow, Hacker News and Slashdot.

Takeaway:  There’s a place for everyone in today’s social media landscape. These sites have users that span the entire age spectrum, and there really are no limits to what you can achieve online, regardless of age or gender.

A note on the source data: All the demographics data in this survey is for the United States, but the patterns shown here should translate roughly to other countries as well. That said, there are regional differences, so keep that in mind if you’re applying this to other parts of the world.

By Pingdom. http://bit.ly/SyLoDW

Ad Planner. http://bit.ly/PHQxqk

Source. http://bit.ly/PDK965