Twitter users make more money than U.S. adults overall, study shows
If you want to make more money, maybe you should become an active Twitter user.
Data show that the social networking site isn't just for bots, gamers, trolls and politicians. It's a hub of highly educated adults who earn higher salaries than the U.S. public overall. Tweeters also tend to have some distinct political views.
Pew Research recently set out to find out which voices are loudest on the social media site by sampling accounts held by about 2,700 random U.S. adults. Participants had to be willing to share their Twitter handles.
By issuing a questionnaire and analyzing how often the users tweet, the research organization found that the average Twitter user is representative of the broader population in some ways, but in others, there are stark differences.
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Income
While the gender and ethnic makeup of people on Twitter is largely reflective of the U.S. adult population, Twitter users have higher household incomes and educational attainment compared with the general population, Pew Research found.
How much more money do people on Twitter make?
Nine percent more, on average.
Forty-one percent of Twitter users report household incomes above $75,000, while 32% of the U.S. population overall make that much in a year. Forty-two percent of Twitter users have at least a bachelor's degree while 31% of adults overall have the same level of education.
Politics
Unlike other social networking sites, Twitter is a key platform on which anyone with a smartphone can engage in political discourse.
Although Republican President Donald Trump is perhaps one of the most well known for using the platform to spread political ideology, Twitter users as a whole are more likely to identify as Democrats, Pew Research found.
Thirty-six percent of people on Twitter say they're Democrats, compared with 30% of U.S. adults. Similarly, 26% of adults identify as Republican, versus 21% of Twitter users.
Twitter users are also less likely to say they are conservatives, according to Pew Research.
In March, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addressed claims that the social networking platform intentionally targeted conservatives, saying that the company may have been "too aggressive" in banning some activists from the site.
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Gender
There were also stark differences between the people who tweet a lot versus those who rarely send a tweet.
Prolific tweeters, who create 80% of all tweets, are far more likely to be women, according to Pew Research. Sixty-five percent of the most active users are women, compared with 48% of the bottom 90% of tweeters.
Twitter users as a group express distinct opinions on gender politics.
They are more likely than the U.S. general public to say that barriers exist in society that make it harder for women to get ahead (62% vs. 56%).
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Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Twitter users make more money than U.S. adults overall, study shows
