Tweens & Twitter

Or Why Are Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers Common

Trending Terms?

A recent Nielsen Study “proved” that teens and tweens were not on Twitter

The many possibilities as to why they were not on Twitter was heatedly debated on Mashable and other sites

But Disney Channel stars are all over TwitterThe Disney Channel caters to tweens (kids 6-12) and is the top rated channel in that demographic (Source: Nielsen Media Research, April 09)

(Older teens are too cool for Disney Channel)Once US teens hit their teen years, they consider Disney Channel somewhat juvenile (Source: UrbanDictinary.com)

And Disney Channel stars often appear in Twitter’s Trending TermsDisney Channel stars like the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus often show up in the top trending terms on Twitter

Some have over 1,000,000 followers

Popular Disney Channel stars have over one million followers: a curious number for a channel whose audience likely needs parental permission to use the computer

Even minor stars, like Mitchel Musso have hundreds of thousands of followers

Musso plays Oliver, one of Cyrus’ sidekicks on Hannah MontanaGomez stars on breaking Disney Channel show The Wizards of Waverly Place

A Tale of Two DemisEven Demi Lovato, an up and coming Disney Channel star (Camp Rock, Sonny With A Chance) is only a million followers short of Twitter powerhouse, Demi Moore

So who is following them?

Many are actual tweensMany tween girls (and they are almost all girls) on Twitter use the service to follow celebrities and rarely, if ever tweet.It appears that Twitter serves as a broadcast medium for them.

Some more tween TwitterersAs noted, they rarely tweet and may not actually be using the service

They follow the usual list of tween-oriented pop stars,Many of these stars appear on Disney Channel shows

A New Development: Polls & Quizzes

A lot of the traffic for Miley Cyrus seems to be coming from three popular Twitter-based quiz sites

PollPigeon, LOLQuiz and Fun 140 are popular quiz and poll sites that require users to enter their Twitter names so the sites can tweet their answers, thus building awareness for the site.

Alexa rankings indicate three sites are very popularLOLQuiz is the most popular of the three (as well as the oldest)

PollPigeon & Fun140 are US-centric, LolQuiz has a larger Brazilian fan base

But LOLQuiz does have a sizable US user base that appears to be growing

Traffic for all three sites picked up almost immediately upon launchLOLQuiz was first out of the gate in June 2009 (source: Alexa rankings)

Reach is up for all three sites(source: Alexa rankings)

PollPigeon recently saw a huge spike in daily pageviewsThough that number seems to be leveling off (source: Alexa rankings)

What do these sites offer?

PollPigeon features quizzes about tween pop starsThe quizzes are user-created so it’s likely that tweens are also creating them

A look at PollPigeon’s top quizzes shows they are clearly aimed at a tween audience

Shows like the Teen Choice Award skew towards tweens and younger teens.

Fun140’s polls are slightly more diverse, but also skew towards teen girls

The home screen shows the Twitter names of people who have just finished taking a quiz and as the site is quite popular, the list is in constant movement

LOLQuiz quizzes also center around tween starsLOLQuiz was the first quiz and poll site out of the gate and has a broader range of topics

Most of the search results for “Miley Cyrus” and “Demi Lovato” are coming from polls and quizzes

The results are coming fast and furious as you can see from the number of new results in the few second it took for me to take a screen shot via Skitch

So Who’s Taking These Quizzes?

Tweens, mostlyThis user is typical: she joined Twitter over the summer, issued a few tweets, and then found the poll & quiz sites. The last 153 of her 161 tweets are from the poll & quiz sites. Many users display this pattern.

This user has 61 of her 63 tweets coming from poll/quiz sitesAll of the quizzes and polls she participates in are on topics and celebrities of interest to tweens.

A quick glance at some of the non-poll/quiz tweets reveals standard teen/tween concerns

School’s impending arrival, summer boredom, and parents are all topic that crop up frequently

A few users do fall into the older teen demographicThis user, an 18 year old girl who is obsessed with Miley Cyrus is fairly typical of a certain segment of many a teen star’s fan base.

Non-US fans, Brazilians in particular, make up another part of the fan base

Due to cultural differences, stars that attract a younger, tween audience in the US may still be palatable to overseas teenagers

Conclusions

Tweens are definitely using Twitter

Their single-mindedness makes them a formidable

bloc

• Tween stars attract hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of followers who are on Twitter to interact with a small group of celebrities

• This single-mindedness makes it easy for tweens to affect the Trending Topics list– Especially with three popular poll and

quiz sites to spur things on

Fast Company’s profile of LOLQuiz founder Zohrob touches on this

Zohrob acknowledges that it is tweens doing the tweeting

But tweens are fickle

• While Oprah and Ashton Kutscher may have brought the tweens to Twitter, the quizzes and polls are what have kept them there.

• There are only so many quizzes anyone can take before boredom sets in.

• Tweens have a lot of downtime during the summer that disappears come September when school starts up

On the other hand, it’s now a habit

• Tweens know that their single-mindedness makes them a powerful block

• They see Twitter as a place to discuss pop culture events from their world, like the Teen Choice Awards

• A shared affinity for a particular pop star is a topic people feel comfortable discussing with total strangers

Marketers have noticed too

Zach Efron is using

Tweens on Twitter to

promote his new movie “17 Again”

Predictions

• The popularity of the poll and quiz sites will wane as the school year starts, and their ability to affect Trending Topics will lessen

• Tweens will return to Twitter to discuss tween-oriented events, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon events in particular– The chatter around these events will

come and go quickly, with only die-hard fans sticking around more than a day or two

• Overseas fans will continue to discover the poll and quiz sites and keep them going– They will add their own home-grown

teen pop stars to the mix

• Marketers will try and harness the Twitter power of tweens with promotions and events around popular celebrities and/or tween-oriented products

• Social media and tech types will continue to be baffled by the appearance of the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus amidst the stream of political crises and Apple product introductions

Thank you