NPR's Twitter followers are "gadget hounds" and "news junkies," according to survey results released last week by NPR Research. Of the 10,244 NPR Twitter followers who completed the survey last month, more than three-quarters said they get all or most of their news online.
Nearly a third said they spend between one and two hours a day with NPR content but -- unlike Facebook fans that NPR surveyed this summer-- fewer Twitter users experience NPR content as radio listeners. Two-thirds of responding Twitter followers, or 67 percent, said they listen to NPR radio broadcasts, compared to three-quarters (76 percent) of Facebook fans.
More Twitter users turn to NPR's digital platforms, especially podcasts and iPhone apps. Thirty-nine percent of Twitter followers use NPR podcasts, compared with 29% of Facebook fans. The gap is wider for the NPR iPhone app: 32% for Twitter and 19% for Facebook.
With a median age of 35, NPR's Twitter community is a lot younger than its radio audience (median: 50) and its Facebook fans (median: 40) .
Mashable offers this observation: "Not to put too fine a point on it, the future of news media lies in successful integration of social media to get the attention (and click-throughs) of a younger generation — a generation whose news needs are vastly different than those of the generations that preceded it."
