Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

It's the great American pastime.

No, I'm not talking about baseball. Or stuffing your face with apple pie. Or arguing about politics with your family over Thanksgiving dinner. No, I'm talking about the great American pastime of buying stuff.

Unlike those other pastimes, however, which have remained relatively unchanged over the years, the way we buy has evolved considerably. For example ...

In 1914, you might've been tempted to buy a (non-branded) pastry after noticing a delicious smell emanating from the local bakery.

In 2014, you might be tempted to buy a Pop-Tart after seeing a commercial for Pop-Tarts on TV, or after reading an article about Pop-Tarts on The Wall Street Journal website, or after hearing about (or attending) a Pop-Tarts-brandedsummer concert series....

...The lack of consistent correspondence between Twitter reaction and public opinion is partly a reflection of the fact that those who get news on Twitter – and particularly those who tweet news – are very different demographically from the public.

The overall reach of Twitter is modest. In the Pew Research Center’s 2012 biennial news consumption survey, just 13% of adults said they ever use Twitter or read Twitter messages; only 3% said they regularly or sometimes tweet or retweet news or news headlines on Twitter.

Twitter users are not representative of the public. Most notably, Twitter users are considerably younger than the general public and more likely to be Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party. In the 2012 news consumption survey, half (50%) of adults who said they posted news on Twitter were younger than 30, compared with 23% of all adults. And 57% of those who posted news on Twitter were either Democrats or leaned Democratic, compared with 46% of the general public. (Another recent Pew Research Center survey provides even more detail on who uses Twitter and other social media.)...