14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter is, clearly, a popular service and it's still growing at a fast rate. But even the site's creators and many experts aren't exactly sure what is the purpose of Twitter. So, maybe, a better way to find out is to get the answer straight from the ones that use it, which is what a new study, “Consumer Internet Barometer,” by TNS and The Conference Board set out to do so and the results are interesting. It turns out that most people employ Twitter just like any other social network, with 41.6 percent of users keeping in touch with their friends through the service.
But that still leaves the other 68.4 percent who have found a more original use for Twitter. The second biggest group, making up 29.1 percent of Twitter users, predominantly employs the service to update its status, no surprise then that Twitter is considered the most self-serving of the social networks. The most taunted aspects of the site, its real-time information and immediateness, aren't the biggest draw, with only 25.8 percent of users looking for news and keeping up with current events as their main activity on the website.
Twitter has become an important tool for businesses, even though it’s mostly used for marketing purposes, neglecting its potential as a communication tool, and 21 .7 percent of users employ the service for a work-related purpose. Another 9.4 percent use if for research, leaving only 0.3 percent of them on the site just for the fun of it.
There are some differences between the way men and women employ the service, with significantly more women, 48.4 percent vs. 33.6 percent, using Twitter to keep in touch with friends than men, but, for both groups, this is the main activity. This is followed by keeping up with news for men and updating their status for women.